Public Library Of Youngstown & Mahoning County: Native American Heritage Month

Press release from the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County:

Sara Churchill

November 3rd, 2021

November is a month to recognize the many accomplishments and honor the history of the First Peoples of America. The background into the creation of this month-long celebration goes back over a century, which you can read about at the NativeAmericanHeritageMonth.gov website. There’s  even more historical details, including a great timeline to all the Congressional Resolutions and Presidential Proclamations at the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Indian Affairs website. And, talking about history, did you realize how far back Native American history does go? Scientific American’s article: The First Americans points out that they have found evidence it stretches back at least 15,500 years. Here at the library, we have many resources which will help you learn about America’s Indigenous Peoples’ history, culture, languages and more.

In going through the library’s Online Resources, I found some great choices for you to use. You may want to begin with a timeline of notable Native Americans, and WorldBook Timelines has two to view when you search “Native Americans”:

Now that you’ve viewed these timelines, if you’d like to locate life stories of famous Native Americans, check out: Biography Reference Center. You can either type in the name of a known famous individual or just click on the “Native Americans” link found in the righthand column, under Biographies by Genre. There you will see quite a few to choose from, both past historical figures and present-day celebrities.

Looking for more history, try History Reference Center where you can browse U.S. History, then choose Early America (prehistory-1491), and find these topics related to the First Peoples of America:

A quick way to pull up lots of articles, is to use the search box and just type “Native American“. It will find over 7,000 articles! You can narrow results down by using the Subject filters on the left column. Here’s a screenshot showing some of the subjects you can choose when you click “Show More“:

A new resource for Ohioans this year, World Almanac for Kids, has some great articles and videos under the topic of Native American Life:

Another new resource this year, PebbleGo Next, is great to learn about Native Americans both in the present and the past history. With this resource, just start typing “American Indian” in the search box, and you will be prompted to open “American Indians Today“:

As you can see, you will then be taught a Native American word and can learn more by clicking the tabs for: Government, Land and Resources, Culture, Native People, Language, and Past, Present and Future.

Lincoln Library Online will find much of interest when you click American History, then under Popular Topics, choose Native Americans.  Plus, you can type “Native American” in the search box in Lincoln Library to find over 2,000 articles to read.

We have three versions of Explora: Explora Primary Schools, Explora Secondary Schools, and Explora Public Libraries . These are great choices to find all types of articles: current, history, science, and biographies. Using the search box, I found that searching: “Native Americans” will find a great Topic Overview article in each resource, plus 1000s of articles. And you will find even more articles and videos by searching: “Native American.”

Gale in Context: Elementary finds many book articles, biographies, news and magazine stories about various Native American tribes when you do a keyword search for “Native American.” You can also Browse Topics and take a look at: “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” This is a day, which is actually celebrated in October in place of Columbus Day, as a way to honor Native Americans.

In addition to doing the keyword searches I’ve mentioned here, you could look up a specific Native American Tribe for information in these resources as well. And in fact, for those looking for information on the many Native American Tribes, we have a resource, Gale eBooks, which includes the full text to a 5-volume encyclopedia: UXL Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. Gale eBooks has lots more to find as well when you do a keyword search for “Native American.” You will find articles from many reference books – fully & freely available to you online through your home computer, tablet or smartphone – anywhere in the world with internet access and your library card!

Hoopla has lots to offer under the tag Native American.

Among the 31 items collected under that tag are:

Audiobook:

Ebook:

Movies:

TV Shows:

There are even more ebooks and audiobooks found when you browse.  You can find 82 eBooks by under ebooks-Genres & Collections: Native American Stories & Experiences. Browsing the same genre/collection heading, Audiobooks has 62 to choose. Browsing eBooks-History: Indigenous Peoples of the Americas finds 466.

And for children, browse Ebooks-Juvenile Nonfiction-People & Places: United States – Native American to find 299 titles.

Another new eBook resource this year is Capstone Interactive eBooks. I did a keyword search for “American Indian,” and it found 19 eBooks:

And last year’s new INFOhio resource for all Ohioans, Highlights Library, find 24 eBooks when you search “Native American“:

Another way to honor Native Americans is to learn some of their languages. The library has two language resources with Indigenous Languages of the Americas available. Mango Languages has two choices: Cherokee and Potawatomi. As Transparent Language Online has a wide variety to choose from, I have arranged the languages geographically:

As you can see, there are many Native American languages available to learn in these resources, especially in Transparent Language Online! And, of note, both Mango and Transparent Language have free apps to use on a smartphone or tablet.

For our hands-on DIY arts and crafters out there, visit Hobbies & Crafts Reference Center. Just search “Native American” here to find over 16,000 articles. These articles cover history on Native American Art, biographies on artists, and more. You can use the filters on the left side to locate crafts by limiting to Projects or check out the Hobby Profiles.

Of course, there is lots to be found online by using an Internet Search Engine, such as Google. Here are some online articles detailing great achievements and innovations from America’s First Peoples:

For more about Native American Heritage Month’s history and ways to celebrate it, see:

Finally, if you are looking for a listing Native American tribes-past and present-check out:

Sara Churchill

Sara Churchill is the Digital Services Specialist and Assistant Supervisor in the Information Services Department at Main Library. A major fan of technology devices and computer research resources at work, she enjoys helping everyone learn to use their devices and the library's many online resources.  She loves reading Science Fiction/Fantasy books, British cozy mysteries, True Crime and other true stories, plus a past reader of horror fiction by the likes of Stephen King and John Saul (among others).  Also, she’s a big fan of Sci-fi, action, horror, spaghetti westerns, and based-on-a-true story movies.  Her blogs are for adults and the entire family to enjoy reading and trying out the many online resources free for PLYMC library cardholders to use.

This press release was produced by the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County. The views expressed here are the author’s own.