Native American Heritage Month 2023

NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH CELEBRATION

NOVEMBER 12, 2023 | 10 AM - 4 PM

Join us to honor Native American Heritage Month as we come together for an engaging celebration featuring Native American dances from different regions of the United States, traditional and contemporary art and making, and maker materials demos.

Plus, throughout Native American Heritage Month, we’ll be celebrating #HistoryMakers here and across our social channels.

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Event Details

Native American Dance

11 AM - 12 PM

Join Leonard Harmon, a member of the Nanticoke Tribe of Millsboro and the Lenape Tribe of New Jersey, and his team as they showcase dance performances rooted in ancestral heritage.

Beads & Wearables

12:30 PM - 4 PM

Get inspired by indigenous beading work and make your own intricate beading wearables with the help of indigenous artists and makers.

Materials Demo

12:30 PM - 4 PM

Learn about indigenous cultures and history through material exploration. Get hands-on with different furs and tools that would have been used by indigenous people in the DMV area throughout history.

Meet a Maker: Jess McPherson

10 AM - 4 PM

Explore colors, patterns, and designs in this all ages activity featuring chevron trade beads, a valued item in colonial Indigenous aesthetics that has carried through to contemporary Native fashion.

Visitors to KID will use a variety of contemporary chevrons to string a necklace or bracelet and even have the opportunity to shop a variety of Jess’ unique threadwork jewelry and eastern woodland inspired adornments.

KID Museum Land Acknowledgement Statement

Situated between the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River, KID Museum is located in Bethesda, Maryland, the native ancestral home of the Piscataway and the Nacotchtank (Anacostan) Nations, and in close proximity to the Manahoac Nation. Along with the Piscataway Conoy Tribe, the Piscataway Indian Nation received recognition by the State of Maryland in 2012. We acknowledge their long-standing kinship with these lands and waters, and acknowledge that we are uninvited visitors on Indigenous lands.

These Indigenous peoples continue to be innovators, makers, artists, and problem-solvers here as they have for generations. Today, the Piscataway Indian Nation continues to celebrate their culture with traditional events such as the Seed Gathering in early spring, the Feast from the Waters in early summer, and a Green Corn Festival in late summer. Anacostan, Manahoac, Lenni Lenape, Shawnee, and indigenous people from other Nations live in Maryland, as well, and continue to make innumerable contributions to our region.

Committed to working in partnership with our community to remove barriers to quality STEM education experiences, focused on joy, authenticity, and sustained relationship building, KID Museum supports Indigenous people and Nations in our state and beyond. To fulfill this commitment, we have listed the following ongoing actions we are making or intend to make in the near future:

We will define STEM and innovation, acknowledging the contributions of indigenous knowledge, art, and traditions as some of the earliest forms of innovation.
We will use our platform and programs to amplify, acknowledge, and respect the voices and knowledge of Indigenous peoples, and we commit to collaborating with Indigenous creators, artists, makers, and scientists in our programming.
Moving forward with this year, 2023, and every year thereafter, funding permitting, we will host activities and programming honoring Native American Heritage Month, featuring Indigenous makers and their contributions to STEM and making.
Acknowledging the underrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in STEM careers, we will work to increase access to KID Museum programs and activities for Indigenous youth, educators, and families.
KID Museum will review and enhance this commitment annually, actively engaging in research and seeking input from our Indigenous staff and community members, including our Indigenous peoples’ community advisory group.

KID Museum invites you to learn more about the Piscataway, Nacotchtank (Anacostan), Manahoac, Lenni Lenape, Shawnee, and other Indigenous Nations within Maryland and about land acknowledgment statements via resources available at the Maryland State Arts Council (msac.org), Maryland Commission of Indian Affairs (goci.maryland.gov) and elsewhere. In addition, we encourage you to consider donating to or making institutional resources available to tribal peoples and to reconsider in what ways you can improve your relationship with the lands you steward.

Access for Every Maker

KID Museum is dedicated to expanding access to STEM and maker learning opportunities for all by providing free and reduced-cost opportunities to participate in our programming.

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Celebrating Native American #HistoryMakers

Elizabeth Apala

NASA Astrophysicist

Stargazing under the clear Oklahoma skies, a young Elizabeth Apala was spellbound by both the distant galaxies and the Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Cherokee mythologies passed down by members of her tribes. After taking an astronomy class in an observatory that had been built by members of the Choctaw Nation, she realized she could study the stars without having to leave her beloved home planet – even without leaving the land her family had lived on for generations. Today, Elizabeth's work for NASA is divided between researching black stars and supporting DEI initiatives. She is especially dedicated to helping create pathways for Native American students to find careers in astrophysics.

Elizabeth Apala
NASA Astrophysicist

Danielle Boyer

Nonprofit Entrepreneur

At KID Museum, we love robots. We’re almost as fond of them as Danielle Boyer, a young Indigenous (Ojibwe) robotics inventor and youth advocate. Growing up, Danielle was fascinated by all of the possibilities offered by robotics; unfortunately, she was frustrated as her family could not afford to enroll her in learning opportunities. At 18, Danielle founded STEAM Connection, an organization dedicated to tackling inequalities in technical education for Native American students. Her flagship invention is Every Kid Gets A Robot (EKGAR), an educational robotics kit that is given to Native American youth free of charge. Recently, Danielle has also created the SkoBot, a personalized, wearable, and interactive Indigenous language revitalization robot. Danielle’s motto is, “Together we can create a future that we want to see.”

Danielle Boyer
Nonprofit Entrepreneur

Angela Miracle Gladue

Dancer, Performer, Choreographer, & Educator

Under her stage name, Miss Chief Rocka, Angela Miracle Gladue travels all across Turtle Island (North America) to share her love of dance. Angela is a proud member of Frog Lake First Nation. She began dancing at age six through a Metis and powwow program at her school. Soon enough, Angela was performing regularly throughout western Canada, encountering many other Indigenous and contemporary forms of dance. Since 2016, Angela has toured as one of the lead dancers for A Tribe Called Red. Apart from being an internationally renowned performer, Angela is also a teacher, filmmaker, and fashion designer.

Angela Miracle Gladue
Dancer, Performer, Choreographer, & Educator

Mary Golda Ross

Aerospace Engineer, Educator, & Advocate

Mary Golda Ross’ high school math teacher was a fellow member of the Cherokee Nation and helped her feel a sense of belonging as someone who loved and excelled in math. By 1949, she became the first Native American woman to receive professional certification as an engineer. She grew up in the Cherokee Nation capital of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, an experience she credits with much of her success. After teaching for many years, Mary worked on improving fighter jet technology during World War II and also worked on some of the most important and top secret aerospace technologies during the Cold War. Later in life, she threw herself into supporting Native American science and engineering students at all education levels.

Mary Golda Ross
Aerospace Engineer, Educator, & Advocate

Leonard Harmon

Artist & Craftsman

Contemporary artist Leonard Harmon believes that his art is all about carrying on traditions of his family. He is a citizen of the Nanticoke Tribe of Delaware and the Lenape Tribe of New Jersey and comes from a long family history of artists and craftsmen. Leonard has given dance performances at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. He also has passions for food, music, art, and dance. His work ranges from pine needle baskets and pine needle necklaces to mixed-media paintings to powwow and even break-dancing. Leonard was named for his uncle, who was also a painter, and takes inspiration from his legacy.

Leonard Harmon
Artist & Craftsman

Anpa'o Locke

Writer & Filmmaker

Whose stories get told, and how? Anpa’o Locke, an Afro-Indigenous filmmaker and writer, has been asking herself this question her whole life. Growing up, Anpa’o longed to see families like her own represented in popular culture. She rarely encountered positive representations of Indigenous people, and, in real life, found herself struggling to navigate anti-Blackness from within the community she strove to elevate. So she took matters into her own hands. Anpa’o is now a filmmaker whose work focuses on the Native diaspora experience, uplifting Black Native stories, and producing a critical analysis of Indigenous activism — or, in other words, she’s a creative community organizer.

Anpa’o Locke
Writer & Filmmaker

Jess McPherson

Artist, Master Craftsperson, & Social Impact Strategist

Jess McPherson, Native of the Lower Susquehanna, a Susquehanna Indian of Pennsylvania German, and Shawnee descent, believes that art connects people to themselves, each other, and their world. She is an award winning artist whose work focuses on hand-wrapped threadwork jewelry, combining contemporary Indigenous art with inspiration found in her dad’s garage, her studies in fine art, and her efforts to process love and grief. Her work connects the threads of history past and present, weaving them into new stories carried forward into new futures by each wearer. Jess is a consultant who understands the impact that art can have on individuals and community. She helps artists and organizations in strategy and leadership.

Jess McPherson
Artist, Master Craftsperson, & Social Impact Strategist

Ashley Minner Jones

Artist, Folklorist, & Curator

Inspired by the beauty of everyday people, Ashley Minner Jones’ art is reflective of collaboration with her subjects to show honest and respectful portrayals of humanity and heritage. She is a community-based visual artist, folklorist, curator in Baltimore Maryland, and a member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Her work mixes traditional media like drawing or printmaking with the art of storytelling. Since 2016, Ashley has been working with elders of her community to reconstruct East Baltimore's historic American Indian “reservation,” creating a walking tour, website, and more public resources to elevate and share the history of their community.

Ashley Minner Jones
Artist, Folklorist, & Curator

Adrian Matthias Stevens & Sean Querino Snyder

Activists, Artists, & Dancers

Adrian Matthias Stevens (he/him) and Sean Querino Snyder (they/them) have had to endure discrimination based on who they are and who they love which has contributed to their perseverance and passion. Both have been dancing at powwows since they were young. They became activists as a result of their experiences being disqualified from powwows as a same-sex Two Spirit couple. Adrian, who comes from the Northern Ute, Shoshone-Bannock, and San Carlos Apache Tribes, and Sean, who is an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation, as well as a descendant of the Southern Ute tribe, refuse to let discrimination come between their love for one another and their love of traditions. Their award-winning short documentary, Sweetheart Dancers (2017) raised awareness of their story and they continue to dance and win powwow competitions. They credit their strength to the support of their families and communities.

Adrian Matthias Stevens
& Sean Querino Snydera
Artists, Activists, & Dancers