Native American Heritage

Did you know that November is Native American Heritage Month? According to the official 2024 White House proclamation, “During National Native American Heritage Month, we honor the history, rich cultures, and vast contributions of Native peoples.” One way to honor Native American histories, cultures, and contributions is to research your Native ancestors and learn more about them. Even if you do not have Native American heritage, learning about Native American history and culture is important. It is very likely that your ancestors, if they were present in the United States by the nineteenth century, would have had experiences that intersected with Native Americans.

In recent years, you may have noticed more and more institutions creating land acknowledgements. This has been particularly popular in higher education institutions, so your alma mater(s) may have written one. Oftentimes, you can find press releases about these, and they are likely posted on their website somewhere. Some institutions even put these statements in official publications and recite them at the beginning of programs.

I share this because in genealogy, we often find ourselves dealing with land records. We may be looking at plat maps, deeds, wills, court documents, or something else that references land that our ancestors owned (sold/bought) or rented. The land which you own today was previously stewarded by a Native group (i.e., tribe, nation, confederation, etc.). If you are interested in learning more about this, you can search online maps to see which tribes/nations lived where you currently live. Also, you can search the various treaties that were made between tribes/nations and the federal government to learn more about land history on a larger scale. The National Archive’s rights timeline is a particularly helpful introduction.

So, what does this have to do with genealogy, you ask? In addition to better understanding Native American ancestors, history, and culture, you can use this research in other ways. If you are interested in looking at one family’s efforts to identify their ancestors’ intersections with Native Americans, more specifically the Lakota, check out Rebecca Clarren’s The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance. We read this at a recent genealogy book discussion, and the book received very good reviews from our local genealogists. Please note, this can be a difficult read. In addition to this book, Kathleen DuVal’s recent book, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, is very well researched and thorough. Finally, there are many books in the collection that relate to the history of particular tribes and nations and Native American genealogy.