Indigenous People’s Day 

October 14th is Indigenous People’s Day. This is a very special holiday because it allows us to celebrate all Native Americans that live in the United States and their contributions. 

In Minnesota, our Indigenous People are the Dakota and Anishinaabe. Our 2022 Minnesota Math Standards include the teaching of their contributions in Dimension 2: Benchmark Contexts.

 This dimension focuses on using context to do and learn mathematics. All students should make sense and persevere in mathematical problem-solving experiences using local contexts of the learning community, within the context of Minnesota and in the contexts of our nation and the global community. The benchmarks noted with the symbols below represent opportunities to utilize the named contexts to teach the mathematics within the benchmark and standard.

 MINNESOTA TRIBAL NATIONS CONTEXTS: Connect mathematical problem solving experiences and contributions to place, story, cultural practices, language and perspectives relevant to historical and contemporary Dakota and Anishinaabe communities.

To support educators in learning more about our MN Native Nations, Understand Native Minnesota has released A Guide to Reliable Native American-Related Teaching Resources and Minnesota Native American Essential Understandings for Educators. These important resources for Minnesota educators, were authored by Odia Wood-Krueger who also co-hosts a podcast with Allison Waukau called Books are Good Medicine. In the most recent episode, Odia and Allison interview professor and author Katrina Phillips on how Indigenous People’s Day can be celebrated in all sorts of ways in the classroom. 

Even though I grew up in Cloquet, next to the Fond du Lac Nation, I was not taught about these contributions. I appreciate the resources from Understand Native MN and this podcast as both have helped with the  unlearning and relearning I need to be able to support implementation of these standards.