Native American Heritage Month written over an image of red rocks

Reflecting on Native American Heritage Month

A selection of articles from MIT Press journals on the history, culture, and struggles of America’s indigenous peoples

Celebrated in November, Native American Heritage Month pays tribute to the ancestry and traditions of America’s indigenous peoples. To commemorate the month, we are highlighting articles from MIT Press journals that explore Native American history, culture, languages, and art. These articles are ungated and available through the end of the month.


Reconciling American archaeology & Native America by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh (Daedalus) – Note: Articles in Daedalus are open access and freely available at all times.

Indigenous Leadership by Gary Sandefur, Philip J. Deloria (Daedalus)

Unfolding Futures: Indigenous Ways of Knowing for the Twenty-First Century Philip J. Deloria, K. Tsianina Lomawaima, Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, Mark N. Trahant, Loren Ghiglione, Douglas Medin, Ned Blackhawk (Daedalus)

Hear Our Languages, Hear Our Voices: Storywork as Theory and Praxis in Indigenous-Language Reclamation by Teresa L. McCarty, Sheilah E. Nicholas, Kari A. B. Chew, Natalie G. Diaz, Wesley Y. Leonard, Louellyn White (Daedalus)

If Indigenous Peoples Stand with the Sciences, Will Scientists Stand with Us? by Megan Bang, Ananda Marin, Douglas Medin (Daedalus)

Recognition, Antiracism & Indigenous Futures: A View from Connecticut by Amy E. Den Ouden (Daedalus)

The New World of the Indigenous Museum by Philip J. Deloria (Daedalus)

The Story of Indian Health is Complicated by History, Shortages & Bouts of Excellence by Mark N. Trahant (Daedalus)

From Mashantucket to Appomattox: The Native American Veterans of Connecticut’s Volunteer Regiments and the Union Navy by David J. Naumec (The New England Quarterly)

“The Names of the Rivers”: A New Look at an Old Document by Mary Beth Norton, Emerson W. Baker (The New England Quarterly)

Roger Williams and the Indian Business by Julie A. Fisher (The New England Quarterly)

Letters from the Mackinaw Mission School by Marla De Rosa (The New England Quarterly)

Before the First Whalemen: The Emergence and Loss of Indigenous Maritime Autonomy in New England, 1672­­­­-1740 by Kelly K. Chaves (The New England Quarterly)

This is My Body: Communion and Cannibalism in Colonial New England and New France by Carla Cevasco (The New England Quarterly)

Terrapolitics in the Dawnland: Relationality, Resistance, and Indigenous Futures in the Native and Colonial Northeast by Christine Delucia (The New England Quarterly)

Becoming a ‘Nation of Statesmen’: The Mohicans’ Incorporation into the Iroquois League, 1671-1675 by Evan Haefeli (The New England Quarterly)

The Never-Chosen Samson Occom, the New Divinity, and Indigenous Self-Determination by Ryan Carr (The New England Quarterly)

Engaging Colonial Entanglements: “Treatment as a  State” Policy for Indigenous Water Co-Governance by Sibyl Diver, Daniel Ahrens, Talia Arbit, Karen Bakker (Global Environmental Politics)

“Our Winters’ Rights”: Challenging Colonial Water Laws by Andrew Curley (Global Environmental Politics)

Finding Common Ground: Negotiating Downstream Rights to Harvest with Upstream Responsibilities to Protect—Dairies, Berries, and Shellfish in the Salish Sea by Emma S. Norman (Global Environmental Politics)

Renegotiating the Columbia River Treaty: Transboundary Governance and Indigenous Rights by Alice Cohen, Emma S. Norman (Global Environmental Politics)

A Questionnaire on Decolonization by Huey Copeland, Hal Foster, David Joselit, Pamela M. Lee (October)

Muhheakantuck—Everything Has a Name by Matthew Buckingham (October)

The First Americans: The Current Debate by Herbert S. Klein (The Journal of Interdisciplinary History)