This foundational session explores the historical and legal foundations of Tribal sovereignty, helping participants understand Native Nations as distinct governments. Through storytelling and reflection, we examine how federal Indian policy, the boarding school legacy, and systemic inequities continue to shape Native families and early childhood systems today.
In the first webinar of the Native Communities Learning Project: We Are Still Here series, our teachers Tara Manthey (Osage Nation), and Stephanie Cote (Anishinaabe) with Returning Light Consulting provided a historical arc of Native nation sovereignty, pre-European contact through the present day. Starting from massive civilizations that developed agriculture and cities in parallel with Europe, they discussed climate shifts that resulted in smaller groupings that became Native nations, resulting in the present-day wide diversity of cultures and languages among Native tribes.
They discussed some aspects that are shared across Native cultures, such as a symbiotic relationship with land as teacher, relationality as a core indigenous worldview, and the centrality of silence, storytelling, and the practice of oratory in Native communication styles.
The presentation slides include timelines from the 15th to the 21st centuries and highlight different eras in Native history—colonization by Europeans was a process that took hundreds of years, was actively resisted by Native tribes and litigated in the US Supreme Court and the halls of Congress, and involved treaties that were repeatedly broken by the federal government (but upheld by Native nations). Land loss, boarding schools that intentionally broke up Native families and communities and attempted to destroy cultural practices and languages, and forced assimilation of Native people into urban areas all served to separate Native people from their heritage and livelihoods. Gains made more recently in federal law and policy were brought about via Native activism. Black American history and Native American history are intertwined as white supremacy systems of power made use of stolen bodies and stolen land.
Future webinar topics will include:
- The Deliberate Breakdown of Indigenous Families: Policies, Impacts & Pathways to Repair
- Native Early Childhood Frameworks: Traditional Child-Rearing Practices, Kinship Systems, and Community Care
- Contemporary Native Realities: Urban Native Experiences, Tribal Program Gaps and Strengths
- Cultural Humility & Power Dynamics: Reflection on Bias, Humility Practices, and Shared Leadership
- Communication and Collaboration: Cross-Cultural Communication, Protocol, and Consensus-Building
- Moving from Ally to Accomplice: Supporting Native-led Priorities and Decolonizing Advocacy
- Applying Learning to Practice: Reflection, Case Studies, and Action Planning
Resources:
Cahokia: A Pre-Columbian American City, Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Marshall Trilogy Supreme Court Cases, Library of Congress
Native Nations, by Kathleen DuVal
History Through a Native Lens, Investing in Native Communities Project
Braiding Sweetgrass, by Robin Kimmerer
Traditional Native Lands Map, Native Land Digital
Indian Health 101, National Indian Health Board
Indian Country 101 Training, The Nature Conservancy
Indian Country 101 Training Related Resources, Land Trust Alliance
Crash Course Native American History, Crash Course Video Series (24 episodes)
Black Indians: A Hidden Heritage, by William Loren Katz
