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Indigenous Peoples’ Heritage Month

The Berkeley Unified School District celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Heritage Month to commemorate the histories, traditions, and important contributions of the many diverse Indigenous cultures to our nation.

This is a colorful graphic that reads: Berkeley Celebrates Indigenous Peoples' Heritage Month, November 2023. It also includes a Berkeley Unified School District logo

On November 19, 2020, the Board of Education adopted a resolution to annually recognize the month of November as Indigenous Peoples’ Heritage Month, and resolved BUSD schools promote instructional activities and celebrations honoring the history, contemporary issues, and culture of the Indigenous People’s of the Americas.

This is an image of Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel with the words: A Note From Enikia, Superintendent Ford Morthel. It includes the image of a pencil with the following words written on the pencil: Excellence, Equity, Engagement, Enrichment

November is Indigenous People’s Heritage Month, also known as Native American Heritage Month, which is an important time of year for our community to reflect on the vital role of the first and original stewards of these lands we now call the United States. Our schools reside on xučyun (Huichin), the ancestral lands of the Lisjan Ohlone (Leeshawn) and Muwekma Ohlone tribes. We acknowledge and celebrate their ongoing role in Berkeley and their current day activism to preserve sacred shellmound sites, revitalize Indigenous practices and the Chochenyo language, and to rematriate land back to Indigenous stewardship.

As part of our district vision for students, “Our students embrace diversity, act responsibly, and contribute to our community.” To that end, our School Board passed the resolution, Declaring Annually the Month of November as Indigenous People’s Heritage Month. We will continue to deepen our commitments to support our students to embrace and learn about the diversity of Berkeley’s first peoples. These resource guides for educators and families are just one small way that we are working toward this
goal.

Through our Rethinking Thanksgiving Teaching Guide, we also invite community members to consider the painful legacy of Thanksgiving for many Indigenous peoples and the nuanced perspectives around this time of celebration and also mourning.

In community,

Enikia Ford Morthel
Superintendent

November is known as Native American Heritage Month, Indigenous People’s Heritage Month, as well as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month 

This is a small image of an Aztec graphic design with the colors orange, blue, yellow, and black.

Why the different names?

As with any group of people who have some unifying lived experiences, shared histories and identities, there will also be a wide variety of opinions and ideas about what words best describe such a diverse community. American Indian, Indian, Native American, Indigenous, and Native are just a few of the words that people use. Many people also prefer to have their specific tribal name referenced. Whatever the case may be, identity is deeply personal and as much as possible, it is important to build relationships and learn how people personally identify themselves, rather than guess.

For more information about terminology, visit this link to the National Museum of the American Indian.

Guides for Families in English, Spanish, and Arabic 

 

These guides are available to support families in honoring and celebrating the heritage of Indigenous Peoples.  Included are suggestions of songs, videos, and  activities to Listen, Learn, Lift Up, and Love!

 

English Guide

This is the image of a page with an English title: BUSD Indigenous Peoples' Heritage Month TK-8 Teaching Resource Guide. It has an image of a woman who appears to be Native American at the top, with a small blue bird, and an image of a mural at the bottom. There are three sections describing links to content. They are called, 1. Listen, 2. Learn , and 3. Lift Up. There is a link to a readable PDF of this information above the image.

Spanish Guide

This is the image of a page with a Spanish title: BUSD Indigenous Peoples' Heritage Month TK-8 Teaching Resource Guide. It has an image of a woman who appears to be Native American at the top, with a small blue bird, and an image of a mural at the bottom. There are three sections describing links to content in Spanish. They are called, 1. Listen, 2. Learn , and 3. Lift Up. There is a link to a readable PDF of this information above the image.

Arabic Guide

This is the image of a page with an Arabic title: BUSD Indigenous Peoples' Heritage Month TK-8 Teaching Resource Guide. It has an image of a woman who appears to be Native American at the top, with a small blue bird, and an image of a mural at the bottom. There are three sections describing links to content in Arabic. They are called, 1. Listen, 2. Learn , and 3. Lift Up. There is a link to a readable PDF of this information above the image.

 

 

Reading Lists for All Ages  

This is an image of a small part of a colorful mural painted on a brick wall. It includes the words: Indigenous Heritage Reading Lists

These reading lists, organized by grade level, represent books published in the last 5 years that are devoted to celebrating, representing, and affirming Indigenous heritage, featuring Indigenous authors, characters and the North American Indigenous experience.

All of these books are available through Berkeley school libraries as a physical and/or digital book. If an ebook is available through Sora, you can access it by clicking the cover of the book. For more information about any of these books, or to check one of them out, ask your school librarian.

 

Teaching Resources

TK-8 Teaching Resources

This diverse collection of resources was compiled by Joemy Ito-Gates, BUSD’s Ethnic Studies TSA in collaboration with the Professional Development Team.

This is the image of a page with the title: BUSD Indigenous Peoples' Heritage Month TK-8 Teaching Resource Guide. It has an image of a woman who appears to be Native American at the top, with a small blue bird, and an image of a mural at the bottom. There are three sections describing links to content. They are called, 1. Get Intersectional, 2. Expand Knowledge, and 3. Acknowledge. There is a link to a readable PDF of this information above the image.

Rethinking Thanksgiving

This TK – 8 Rethinking Thanksgiving Teaching Guide provides educators with lessons, teaching tips, and other resources to teach about the Thanksgiving holiday.

This is an image of the first page of a document titled: BUSD's Rethinking Thanksgiving TK-8 Teaching Guide. It has an image of five people who appear to be indigenous people, wtih the the image titled "Giving Thanks." It also has a photograph of four Native American people, including two children. There is a readable headline tht says "Deepen Knowledge" and then very small print text that is difficult to read. The readable PDF is in the site copy near this image.

Get Involved and Learn More

Native American Health Center

Intertribal Friendship House | Oakland

American Indian Cultural Center | San Francisco

American Indian Child Resource Center | Bay Area

Native American Student Development (NASD) | UC Berkeley

Native American Cultural Center | Stanford University

Sogorea Te’ Land Trust

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The Berkeley Unified School District is committed to providing equal opportunity for all individuals in district programs and activities. Accordingly, BUSD programs and activities shall be free from discrimination, harassment, intimidation and bullying based on actual or perceived ancestry, age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression; nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or association with a person or group with one or more of these actual or perceived characteristics. The Board shall promote programs which ensure that discriminatory practices are eliminated in all district activities. (Board Policy 0410, Board Policy 1311, Board Policy 4030, Board Policy 5145.3, Board Policy 5145.7)

The Board also prohibits retaliation against any district employee or job applicant who complains, testifies or in any way participates in the district's complaint procedures instituted pursuant to this policy. (Board Policy 4030)

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2020 Bonar Street Room 116, Berkeley, CA 94702
Phone: 510.486.9338     Email: nondiscrimination@berkeley.net
More information is available at www.berkeleyschools.net/non-discrimination/.
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