Native American Heritage Month 2022
Nov 1, 2022
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Individual Spotlights
• Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk) – one of the first two Native American women to be elected to Congress (alongside Deb Haaland), and is also the first LGBTQ+ person to be elected in Kansas.
• John Herrington (Chickasaw) – in 2002, he became the first member of a Native American tribe to fly in space.
Local Museums
• The Field Museum – the Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories exhibit was created with an advisory council of Native American scholars and features beadworks, ceramics, murals, music, dance, and more. The Museum is also hosting several events throughout the month.
• The American Indian Center Gallery – located in Albany Park, it is dedicated to meeting the needs of the community by providing a vehicle for artistic expression by taking a leadership role in the cultivation, exhibition, and dissemination of historical and contemporary Native histories in Chicago.
• The Mitchell Museum of the American Indian – located in Evanston, it is one of only a handful of museums across the country that focuses exclusively on the art, history, and culture of Native American and First Nation peoples from throughout the United States and Canada. It promotes public understanding of cultural diversity through first voice perspectives.
Local Cuisine
- Ketapanen Kitchen – an Indigenous-owned catering company that will be doing a pop up at the Field Museum’s Bistro Café for November.
Books
• There There: A Novel, by Tommy Orange. A wondrous and shattering award-winning novel that follows twelve characters from Native communities all traveling to the Big Oakland Powwow, all connected to one another in ways they may not yet realize.
• Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City, by Tanya Talaga. The groundbreaking and multiple award-winning national bestseller work about systemic racism, education, the failure of the policing and justice systems, and Indigenous rights.
DID YOU KNOW?
The name “Chicago” derives from the Algonquian people, who called the river on which it sits “Checagou” after the stinky wild leeks that grew along its shore.
Read “We’re Still Here” to learn more on the history of Chicago’s Native American community.
