Native American Heritage Month is a time to celebrate the diverse cultures and traditions of Native American, American Indian, and Alaska Native communities, as well as honoring their historical legacy. November is also a month for awareness and acknowledgement of the inequities and erasure that Native American communities have faced, and continue to face, in the U.S.
Native American workers experience ongoing marginalization in the labor force. In analyzing Bureau of Labor Service (BLS) data, the Brookings Institute found that in January 2022, the unadjusted unemployment rate among Native American workers was 11.1% compared to the nation’s topline rate of 4.4%. The Brookings Institute points out that “the January 2022 unemployment rate for Native American workers was higher than the unemployment rate for white workers in June 2020, just two months after the unemployment peak — a period widely considered a national crisis.” Prior to February 2022, the BLS did not report monthly data on American Indian and Alaska Native unemployment, and Native American workers are still excluded from the BLS monthly jobs report due to issues of sample size, meaning there is no federal monthly baseline for Native American labor market metrics. A Great Place to Work survey found that American Indian and Alaska Native employees have the lowest levels of belonging at each level in an organization and their sense of feeling seen and valued decreases as they move up in the organization. Compared to white employees, Indigenous employees feel 1.3x less belonging at the individual contributor level, 1.5x less belonging at the frontline manager level, 1.9x less belonging at the mid-level manager level, and 7x less belonging at the executive level.
Stats like these are why Syndio is committed to providing data-driven solutions to drive progress around equitable pay, representation, and opportunity for every worker. To celebrate Native American Heritage Month, our team has put together this collection of books, poetry collections, graphic novels, documentaries, movies, and TV shows that showcase Native American, American Indian, and Alaska Native stories, traditions, voices, and experiences.
Nonfiction books
American Indian Stories
by Zitkála-Šá
Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City
by Tanya Talaga
Waterlily
by Ella Cara Deloria
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present
by David Treuer
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
By Robin Wall Kimmerer
Keepunumuk: Weeâchumun’s Thanksgiving Story
by Danielle Greendeer, Anthony Perry, and Alexis Bunten
Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir by One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII
by Chester Nez and Judith Schiess Avila
Crazy Brave: A Memoir
By Joy Harjo
Heart Berries: A Memoir
by Terese Marie Mailhot
Tallchief: America’s Prima Ballerina
By Maria Tallchief
Haa Ḵusteeyí, Our Culture: Tlingit Life Stories
By Nora Marks Dauenhauer and Richard Dauenhauer
The Truth about Stories: A Native Narrative
by Thomas King
Black Elk Speaks
by John G. Neihardt
Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto
by Vine Deloria Jr.
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
by David Grann
Fiction
House Made of Dawn
by N. Scott Momaday
The Night Watchman
by Louise Erdrich
The Plague of Doves
by Louise Erdrich
How I Became a Ghost: A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story
by Tim Tingle
There There
by Tommy Orange
Moon of the Crusted Snow
by Waubgeshig Rice
Night of the Living Rez: Stories
by Morgan Talty
The Seed Keeper
by Diane Wilson
Shell Shaker
by LeAnne Howe
Firekeeper’s Daughter
by Angeline Boulley
Elatsoe
by Darcie Little Badger
Ceremony
by Leslie Marmon Silko
Poetry & graphic novels
An American Sunrise: Poems
by Joy Harjo
The Death of Sitting Bear: New and Selected Poems
by N. Scott Momaday
Bone Light
by Orlando White
Hyperboreal
by Joan Naviyuk Kane
This Place: 150 Years Retold
Anthology by 11 Indigenous authors
The Barren Grounds: The Misewa Saga
Writing by David A. Robertson
Documentaries
Without a Whisper — Konnón:Kwe
Watch on: PBS Short Film Festival
Warrior Women
Watch on: Warrior Women Project
Mankiller
Watch on: Gumroad
N. Scott Momaday: Words from a Bear
Watch on: PBS, Amazon Prime Video
We Breathe Again
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
If I Go Missing
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Shiloh
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
We Shall Remain (Documentary Series)
Watch on: PBS, Amazon Prime Video
Movies
Smoke Signals
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV
Songs My Brother Taught Me
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video, Google Play, Apple TV
Te Ata
Watch on: Netflix
Indian Horse
Watch on: Netflix
Powwow Highway
Watch on: The Criterion Channel
Wind River
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV
Dances with Wolves
Watch on: Hulu, HBO Max, Apple TV
TV Shows & Comedy Specials
Alaska Daily
Watch on: ABC
Reservation Dogs
Watch on: Hulu
Dark Winds
Watch on: Roku, AMC+, Amazon Prime Video
Rutherford Falls
Watch on: Peacock
