This week you will learn:
• That Native nations are alive and thriving today
• How languages and traditions are being kept strong
• Native names, foods, and ideas all around you
• How we can honor and celebrate this living history
Here is the most important lesson of our whole unit: Native American history is not just in the past — it is ALIVE today!
There are 574 federally recognized Native nations in the United States right now. Millions of Native Americans live all across the country — in cities, in towns, and on tribal lands called reservations. They are doctors, teachers, artists, scientists, and leaders.
Native nations have their own governments, run their own schools, and celebrate their cultures at powwows and festivals. Their story did not end long ago — it continues every single day, and it is still being written.
1. How many federally recognized Native nations are there in the U.S. today?
2. Where do Native Americans live today?
3. What jobs do Native Americans do today?
4. What is the most important lesson of this unit?
Write what each word means in your own words.
Write T for true or F for false in each circle.
1. Why do you think some people wrongly believe Native Americans only lived 'long ago'?
2. How does it change your thinking to know 574 nations are thriving right now?
Draw a Native American person today doing something amazing — a scientist, an artist, a dancer at a powwow, or a leader giving a speech.
Tomorrow: language heroes! We'll learn how nations are saving their languages — and about the Navajo Code Talkers who helped win a world war.