Honor Truth Telling

by Laura Mann Hill -ACW D and I Coordinator

Photo by Forrest Hill, shared with permission from Daren Hill, ACW member

“Indigenous people are not relics of the past. We are still here, and we continue to demonstrate our talents and gifts amidst a backdrop of ongoing colonialism and oppression. We are worth celebrating.” —Native Governance Center

When my daughter was 9 years old, we had many conversations about the way Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) were represented in her textbooks, especially as she learned more about American history and colonization. “Mom, this is a lie. They should tell us the truth…we can handle it” she said. My daughter is now 12 and attends a school that centers on a social justice curriculum, but we still have these conversations about text and media she encounters. November is National Native American Heritage Month, offering all of us an opportunity to embrace truth. As people living in, Mni Sota Makoce or Minnesota, we should not only acknowledge that we are on the homeland of the Dakota people; and a home for many other Indigenous nations, including the Anishinaabe and the Ho-Chunk people. We have the responsibility to move beyond acknowledgments towards actions. We must continue to do the work to dismantle racism and white supremacy as artists and community members to repair the harms of colonization and honor truth-telling. What can we do today to radically change the way future generations speak about the past?

A few resources to start exploring this month and all year: 
Bdote Memory Map: http://bdotememorymap.org/
Dakota Land Map: https://marlenamyl.es/project/dakota-land-map/
Upcoming Events https://nativegov.org/events/
Reclaiming Native Truth: https://rnt.firstnations.org/
Truthsgiving: https://www.truthsgiving.org/resources
Learn about Treaties: https://mn350.org/campaigns/treatypledge/
Black Liberation and Indigenous Sovereignty: https://usdac.us/news/2021/9/21/envisioning-black-liberation-and-indigenous-sovereignty
Land Reparations: https://resourcegeneration.org/land-reparations-indigenous-solidarity-action-guide/