November is Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month, and the Friday after Thanksgiving is Native American Heritage Day. These observances, formalized this year by a proclamation from the White House and a resolution from the U.S. Senate, are times for us to reflect on the American Indian and Indigenous people that have lived on this land since time immemorial.

One way we do this is through the process of land acknowledgement. (You can read ours on our Equity & Diversity website, and you can take a self-paced workshop, designed by UW’s Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, on the topic of land acknowledgements in the context of UW and our state.)

There are many other ways we can expand our awareness of Indigenous culture and knowledge. For example, you can visit the UW Tacoma Giving Garden, at the corner of Fawcett Ave and S. 21^st St., where a project underway for several years is bearing fruit (pun intended!) — signs give the names of plants in Lushootseed, a language spoken by 13 tribes in the Puget Sound region, as well as English. I am grateful for our partnership with the Puyallup Tribe, whose Tribal Language Program office helped us with plant name translations.

You can check out the UW Center for American Indian & Indigenous Studies, co-directed by Dr. Danica Miller. Funded in part with a $2.3-million grant from the Mellon Foundation, the Center’s work on our campus includes the Summer Institute in Indigenous Humanities, and bringing Native knowledge into the classroom and community through events and workshops.

And you can attend upcoming talks (and watch videos of previous events) in the Indigenous Speaker Series, a project of Dr. Michelle Montgomery that promotes community partnerships, amplifies the voices of Indigenous people, and encourages dialog about Indigenous cultural and traditional lived experiences.

I am grateful to Drs. Montgomery and Miller and all our Indigenous faculty, staff and students for their contributions to our campus and our community.

As you gather with family, loved ones and friends this week, please take the opportunity to reflect on the history of the land upon which we live and work and the people who are here and have been here. It is my hope that spirit of reflection and engagement will lead us to further our aspirations for a more inclusive campus and society.

Explore More

• American Indian Programs & Resources – from UW Tacoma’s Office of Equity & Inclusion
• Resources to celebrate Native American Heritage Month – from the UW School of Public Health
• Facts for Features: AIAN November 2023 – a compendium from the U.S. Census Bureau of statistics about American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian populations, reservations and trust lands
• Native American Heritage Month at the Smithsonian Institution – stories, podcasts and online exhibitions