Native American Day is a wonderful day to gather your team and celebrate the contributions of Native Americans.
Native American Day has been celebrated since the early 20th Century to honor the Indigenous people of the United States. The first Native American Day was celebrated in New York in 1915. Today, Native American Day is celebrated at many different times. In some states, like California it is celebrated on the 4th Friday of September, and some states celebrate it on the 2nd Monday in October, on Columbus Day. In 2009 President Obama designated the Friday after Thanksgiving as Native American Heritage Day.
Native American Heritage Day is a time to acknowledge the contributions and importance of the people who were in America before Europeans and other nationalities ever set foot on this land.
It is a time to look at new perspectives of history and our lives.
Gather your team and help them discover what Native American Tribes lived on the land where your company is located. Discuss what traditions of the tribe. Are there tribe members still in the area? Have a tribe storyteller come and share information about the tribe and how they lived in the past and are living now.
There are many printable trivia games and word search games online. If you search, "Native American trivia questions and answers pdf," you will find many. Post the trivia questions on Slack and see who can answer the most trivia questions correctly in 5 minutes.
If you have a person of Native American descent working in your office, ask if they would like to run a brown-bag session about their tribe and traditions.
Contact your local Native American Heritage site, or museum, if you have one in your area, and arrange an outing for your team to learn more about the Native Americans in your area.
Native Americans often ate: corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, peppers, tomatoes, yams, peanuts, wild rice, chocolate, pineapples, avocados, papayas, pecans, strawberries, cranberries, and blueberries. Create a potluck by having your team each pick one of these ingredients and bring a dish to share from their own heritage, as a way of connecting with our Native American neighbors through the food we eat.
Share a video or documentary about the Native American Experience. PBS has a series that highlights the Native American Experience.
We picked experiences that will help your team connect with nature and the people around them. These activities are not meant to replace important cultural conversations on this day. They are meant to create a fun and positive setting to bring these conversations up. For more experiences in your city, make sure to visit our home page!
