Native American Heritage Month 2022

The Diné, or Navajo People, welcome a baby into their community by celebrating the baby’s first laugh. As part of the celebration, the baby often receives a special gift of turquoise, and the meal might include rock salt, symbolizing a connection with the earth. Who gets to host this celebration? The person who first made the baby laugh! 

To celebrate 2022 Native American Heritage Month, you can read more about the Diné first laugh celebration and the traditions and experiences of other Indigenous Americans in the books below:

First Laugh Welcome Baby! by Rose Ann Tahe

Sharice's Big Voice: A Native Kid Becomes a Congresswoman by Sharice Davids

Unstoppable: How Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team Defeated Army by Art Coulson

Greet the Dawn: The Lakota Way by S D Nelson

Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun's Thanksgiving Story by Danielle Greendeer

Kapaemahu by Hinaleimoana Wong-Kalu

We Are Still Here!: Native American Truths Everyone Should Know by Traci Sorell

Finding My Dance by Ria Thundercloud

Voices of the People by Joseph Bruchac

Classified: The Secret Career of Mary Golda Ross, Cherokee Aerospace Engineer by Traci Sorell

Ancestor Approved: Intertribal Stories for Kids by Cynthia L Smith

Wilma Mankiller (She Persisted) by Traci Sorell

Maria Tallchief (She Persisted) by Christine Day

Ella Cara Deloria: Dakota Language Protector (Minnesota Native American Lives) by Diane Wilson

Charles Albert Bender: National Hall of Fame Pitcher (Minnesota Native American Lives) by Kade Ferris

The featured authors and illustrators represent the following tribes and nations: Naaneesh’t’ezhi Tachii’nii nish’li (The Charcoal Streaked Division of the Red Running Into the Water Clan); Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin;  Cherokee Nation; Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas; Upper Skagit; Muscogee Nation; Ho-Chunk Nation; Sandia Pueblo; Mdewakanton Oyate and enrolled on the Rosebud Reservation; Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, Belcourt, North Dakota; Nulhegan Abenaki; Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Citizen, Hawk Clan.

Also, we collected our Jazzy’s Native American Heritage Month Bookshelf for you here.