Features

Native American Heritage Month

Celebrate November with culture, traditions, activities

Kylesse Walker, Senior Reporter

November 10, 2024

Photo by Tatiana Potapkina

What is heritage? Heritage is something that is handed down from the past, as in a tradition.

November is celebrated as Native American Heritage Month to honor the culture, traditions and achievements of Native Americans, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and affiliated island communities. This month is full of things to help celebrate Native American Heritage Month.

Events will be held at Metropolitan Community College (MCC), The University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) and the Joslyn Museum. Some of the activities this month include a beadwork class Thursday, November 11, at MCC’s Fort Omaha Campus and a Native American Craft Fair Saturday, November 23, at the South Omaha Campus.

Native indigenous education specialist Emma Fanning said that “heritage is a part of identity; it is something that surpasses one’s lifetime.”

Nebraska is the ancestral homeland of the Omaha, Osni Ponka, Isanti and Ho-Chunk people of Nibthaska. Nibthaska means “flat water” for the rivers that flow through the lands. These four tribes are currently headquartered in what is known as Nebraska.

About the Contributor

Kylesse Walker, Senior Reporter

Kylesse Walker is a senior at Omaha South and in her third year of journalism. Walker loves to write stories based on her Native American culture! She has written a story about the NICE (Native Indigenous Centered Education) program at Omaha South which is a youth program for Native students in OPS; this was Walker's favorite to write for The Tooter. After high school, she plans to attend an aesthetician program.