GENERAL RESOURCES

Learn the history of Native American Heritage Month (PBS Learning Media (1:28))

Learn about Indigenous Peoples in your area from the Native Land map.

Honoring Native Land: Massachusetts Indigenous Peoples—this page from the Student Affairs Center at Emerson College has links to tribal websites and other resources about contemporary and historic Native American life in Massachusetts.

Indigenous Peoples (Issue #48 of The Change Agent)

DATA

• Indian Country Demographics from the National Congress of American Indians
• The United States Census American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) Data—includes Detailed Data for Hundreds of American Indian and Alaska Native Tribes
• The Slow Reveal Map Collection in the SABES resources includes two slow reveal sequences involving data on Native Americans. One map examining the Indigenous-only Population of the United States in 2020 can be found in the U.S. Demographic Map collection. Another slow reveal map looks at the Trail of Tears following the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and can be found in the U.S. Historical Map collection. 
• Slow Reveal Graph: Number of Doctorates in Mathematics Earned by Indigenous People in the US (1963–2033)
• Life Expectancy by Race or Ethnicity, 2006–2021 by Slow Reveal Graphs
• SA Aboriginal Health Consortium – This Consortium has been set up to improve services and care for heart disease, stroke, cancer, and diabetes and is being guided by the South Australian Aboriginal Heart and Stroke Plan 2017–2021, the South Australian Aboriginal Diabetes Strategy 2017–2021, and the South Australian Aboriginal Cancer Control Plan 2016–2021.

WHO DOES MATH

• Indigenous Mathematicians website—While recognizing and honoring the ways that Native people have been doing mathematics for thousands of years, the goal of this website is to gather the biographies and stories of Indigenous mathematicians who are currently working and creating in the field of mathematics. The site highlights the works of Indigenous mathematicians in the United States, including current doctoral students. 
• Dr. Kamuela Yong: Dr. Yong was the first Native Hawaiian to earn a PhD in Applied Math. He is also the founder of Indigenous Mathematicians.org. Learn more at Yong Helps Create ʻIndigenous Mathematicians’ Community
• Mary Golda Ross: Dr. Ross was the first Native aerospace engineer involved in the early years of space exploration. Some of her work on missiles is still classified today. 
  • Meet Mary Golda Ross, One of the First Native Americans in Engineering
  • Mary Golda Ross: She Reached for the Stars 
  • Meet the Little-Known Math Genius Who Helped America Reach the Stars
• Dr. Henry Fowler: Dr. Fowler is the chair of the mathematics department at Diné College, a college that serves Navajo Nation. He is a co-founder of the Navajo Nation Math Circle program (more below). Here are resources related to his work:
  • My Favorite Theorem is a podcast series from Scientific American featuring interviews with mathematicians. In this episode, Dr. Fowler talks about how the Pythagorean Theorem intersects with his identity as a Navajo.
  • Pattern & Disruption: Diné Lifeways and Embedded Mathematics, Kennedy Museum of Art, 2020—YouTube
  • Navajo Math Circles—The Navajo Math Circles project uses applications of math in Native culture to provide tools for increasing math literacy, and highlights the special connections between Navajo culture, natural beauty, and mathematics. The link above has a collection of the open math activities they do in their program. (There is a documentary about the Navajo Math Circles available to rent or purchase as well.)
  • Navajo Math Wrangle—The math wrangle is a competitive component of the Navajo Math Circles project. This video documents how the wrangle involves students in problem-solving, exercising their skills at communication, collaboration, presentation, critiquing, and working with others.
  • Spirit of Math poem
• Stellar Connections: Explorations in Cultural Astronomy—Dr. Michael Price Wassegijig explains the cultural names and indigenous connection to familiar constellations in this recorded presentation.
• Native American Mathematics—Recorded presentation that explains the math of various tribes and how it was used. 
• Indigenous Mathematical Art—Lesson plans created by YouCubed around the mathematics of art created by indigenous artists. 
• Restoring Indigenous Identities in Mathematics from Land-Based Pedagogies: Implications for Black and Brown Communities—This recorded presentation addresses how racial/ethnic identities are intimately tied to disciplinary identities. Dr. Filiberto Barajas-López draws from historical and contemporary Indigenous contexts to illustrate the ways in which mathematics is produced as a consequence of living relationships with the physical world (e.g., plants, animals and other living things). This webinar was part of the Equity in Education series offered by Casio Education in collaboration with TODOS Math for All and the Benjamin Banneker Association.

• TODOS Live! Beyond Land Acknowledgements: A Conversation Around the Significance for Mathematics Education—In this recorded presentation, math educators and leaders Florence Glanfield, Rochelle Gutiérrez, and Belin M. Tsinnajinnie shared their thoughts on the significance of land acknowledgements in relation to mathematics teaching and learning. It is offered by TODOS Math for All as part of their TODOS Live! series.
• PBS Series: Native America - Episode 1: New Worlds—This episode shares the stories of Native innovators in music, building, and space exploration. During the episode, Aaron Yazzie, a Native American scientist that works on the MARS mission for NASA, talks about the importance of identity and of indigenous people seeing others like themselves in the STEM field.  
• Water Wisdom: The Indigenous Scientists Walking in Two Worlds—Vance and Nakoa Farrant are brothers and researchers who draw on academic training and cultural experience to help Indigenous communities protect water, restore ecosystems, and sustain traditional resources.
• Article: Traditional Knowledge Is Essential to Sustainability in the Amazon 

MATH LESSONS & ACTIVITIES

• Math in a Cultural Context—This research collaboration has created many videos to aid in the teaching of culturally-based mathematics in the classroom. Of special note is this playlist of Instructional Videos, which includes videos on scaling, making squares, making circles, comparing lengths algebraically, making thirds, clock partitioning, making a protractor, and making a compass. 
• Indigenous STEAM—The ISTEAM collaborative is supporting Indigenous resurgence through (re)making relations with lands, waters, and each other towards just, sustainable, and culturally thriving futures.
• The National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) Native Knowledge 360° Essential Understandings About American Indians is a framework that reveals key concepts about the rich and diverse cultures, histories, and contemporary lives of Native Peoples. 
• Educational Resources from the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) 
  • American Indian Response to Environmental Challenges
  • Q’eswachaka: A Living Legacy of Inka Engineering
  • Living Maya Time
  • Learning to Look and Object Investigation
• Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde 4th grade Math Unit—The goal of these lessons is to create a comprehensive Native American curriculum that spreads Native American culture and history across multiple subjects, rather than specifically social studies.
• Native Financial Cents—The NFC curriculum was created for Native American students. It incorporates Native customs, traditions, and culture so that content will be more relevant to and easily understood and applied by Native learners. 
• Indigenous Student Support and Wellness (ISSW) at University of Wisconsin—ISSW is dedicated to helping American Indian students grow academically and develop a stronger cultural identity. ISSW provides leadership development with educational guidance and support. It also offers cultural events that educate the campus and community.