Native American Heritage Month

Collaborating with Indigenous Nations to Maintain Peace and Friendship

National Native American Heritage Month is a time to recognize the traditions, languages, and stories of Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and affiliated Island communities. It is also a time to celebrate the diverse culture and heritage of Indigenous Peoples who deeply enrich their communities and the quality and character of the nation, including the many Native American veterans who have sacrificed to defend this country.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) recognizes the contributions Indigenous Peoples have made and continue to make to protect our shared environment. These contributions include the ongoing stewardship of land in accordance with traditional teachings and ecological knowledge.

Throughout this month and year-round, DEC is working to improve our relationship with Indigenous Peoples while recognizing our shared and often challenging history. DEC's Office of Indian Nation Affairs is leading the agency's efforts to enhance and deepen proactive engagement with State- and federally recognized Indigenous Nations by improving consultation, building shared knowledge, and advancing meaningful cooperation. This work is informed by DEC’s laws and policies, as well as federally ratified treaties and the New York State Constitution.

The contributions of Indigenous Peoples, both past and present, are all around us in New York State. One of many recent highlights is the effective advocacy of the Onondaga People toward restoration of Onondaga Lake, near Syracuse. DEC has been working with the Onondaga Nation on restoration opportunities in the area and its People actively participate in consultation meetings for various ongoing cleanup projects. This coordination became possible after New York State and U.S. Department of the Interior (via the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - USFWS) served as Natural Resource Damages Trustees for a settlement related to the Onondaga Lake Superfund site and signed a historic resolution in 2022. The resolution directed the transfer of more than 1,000 acres of open space in Central New York’s Tully Valley to the Onondaga Nation to restore and steward the property.

On Oct. 2, 2024, Governor Kathy Hochul, Onondaga Nation Tadodaho Sidney Hill, USFWS Director Martha Williams, and New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced the finalization of the return of 1,023 acres to the Onondaga Nation. The completed title transfer of open space to an Indigenous Nation is one of the largest of its kind by any state and fulfills a critical part of the Onondaga Lake Natural Resource Damages settlement.

DEC Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said, “The degradation of the Onondaga Nation’s lands and waters by a legacy of industrial contamination can never be fully repaired, but today’s historic announcement celebrates a key milestone in the journey to reconnect culturally, spiritually, and ecologically significant lands to the healing, caretaking, and permanent stewardship of Onondaga People. Guided by Governor Hochul’s leadership, DEC worked closely with the Onondaga Nation, the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Office of Attorney General James, and thanks these partners and the many other stakeholders who sought to return these Tully Valley parcels to the Onondaga Nation.”

The full press release can be found on the Governor’s website. The Restoration Plan for Onondaga Lake is available on the USFWS website. Read more information about the cleanup of Onondaga Lake here.

The return of land to the Onondaga Nation allows for the continuation of traditions and cultural practices. One such practice still used across the state is the planting of the “Three Sisters” (corn, squash, and beans) together in mounds. The technique is so named because it is believed each plant nurtures each other like family when planted together. It is held that corn provides support for beans, beans provide nitrogen through nitrogen-fixing rhizobia bacteria that live on the roots, and squash provides ground cover to suppress weeds and inhibit evaporation from the soil.

This beneficial agricultural technique was recognized on a $1 coin issued by the U.S. Mint in 2009.

DEC continues to work with Indigenous Nations to help guide DEC's management of properties held in trust for all New Yorkers. Our goal is to make these State-owned and managed lands more welcoming to all people, including Indigenous Peoples, by exploring how we can better integrate environmental stewardship with opportunities to sustain and support Indigenous cultures.

As we recognize Native American Heritage Month, DEC encourages New Yorkers to explore and celebrate the heritage, traditions, culture, art, and history of the Indigenous Peoples of New York State. Consider how society's actions may impact Indigenous Peoples and discover ways we can strengthen our relationship with nature and each other. 

Also, starting Nov. 7, 2024, be sure to check out the latest "DEC Does What?!" podcast episode to learn more about some of the incredible work and talented staff in DEC’s Office of Indian Nation Affairs.

Native American Heritage Month Reading List 2024 

• Aminov, Zafar, and David O. Carpenter. 2020. “Serum Concentrations of Persistent Organic Pollutants and the Metabolic Syndrome in Akwesasne Mohawks, a Native American Community.” Environmental Pollution 260 (May):114004. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114004.
• AP News. 2024. “Ancestral Land Returned to Onondaga Nation in Upstate New York,” September 30, 2024, sec. U.S. News. https://apnews.com/article/native-american-land-rights-onondaga-new-york-9f105760632d6bf7ce26a6e1c324f8a6.
• Barnhill-Dilling, S. Kathleen, Louie Rivers, and Jason A. Delborne. 2020. “Rooted in Recognition: Indigenous Environmental Justice and the Genetically Engineered American Chestnut Tree.” Society & Natural Resources 33 (1): 83–100. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2019.1685145.
• Berger, Bethany R. 2024. “Intertribal: The Unheralded Element in Indigenous Wildlife Sovereignty.” Harvard Environmental Law Review 48 (1): 1–44. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eih&AN=176794749&site=ehost-live.
• Bullock, Chenae. 2024. “Reverberation of the Doctrine of Discovery on the Shinnecock Peoples.” Cultural Survival, February 7, 2024. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/reverberation-doctrine-discovery-shinnecock-peoples.
• Burich, Keith R. 2016. The Thomas Indian School and the “Irredeemable” Children of New York. First edition. The Iroquois and Their Neighbors. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.
• Ciocco, Tony, Stefan Tangen, and Chad Smith. 2023. “Actualizing Indigenous Knowledge in Tribal Wildlife Management: Basic Preconditions.” Wildlife Society Bulletin 47 (3): e1467. https://doi.org/10.1002/wsb.1467. 
• Cultural Survival. 2023. “11 Ways to Decolonize Your Thanksgiving and Honor Native Peoples,” November 22, 2023. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/11-ways-decolonize-your-thanksgiving-and-honor-native-peoples-0.
• Day, Gordon M. 1953. “The Indian as an Ecological Factor in the Northeastern Forest.” Ecology 34 (2): 329–46. https://doi.org/10.2307/1930900.
• Dellinger, Matthew J., Ronald Anguzu, Noel Pingatore, and Michael Ripley. 2020. “Risk-Benefit Modeling to Guide Health Research in Collaboration with Great Lakes Fish Consuming Native American Communities.” Journal of Great Lakes Research 46 (6): 1702–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jglr.2020.08.003.
• Dellinger, Matthew J., Lora Daskalska, and Michael Ripley. 2023. “A Thirty-Year Contaminant Trend Analysis in Great Lakes Native American Fish Harvests 1991–2021.” Environmental Pollution 333 (September):122075. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122075.
• Dellinger, Matthew J., Noel Pingatore, Thomas Chelius, Alexis Visotcky, Rodney Sparapani, and Michael Ripley. 2022. “Environmental Health Literacy for Anishinaabe (Great Lakes Native American) Fish Consumers: A Randomized Control Trial.” Environmental Research 212 (September):113335. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2022.113335.
• Duncan, Dayton, and Ken Burns. 2023. Blood Memory: The Tragic Decline and Improbable Resurrection of the American Buffalo. A Borzoi Book. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
• Ehrenpreis, Jamie E., and Eli D. Ehrenpreis. 2022. “A Historical Perspective of Healthcare Disparity and Infectious Disease in the Native American Population.” The American Journal of the Medical Sciences 363 (4): 288–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjms.2022.01.005.
• George, Christine Marie, Tracy Zacher, Kelly Endres, Francine Richards, Lisa Bear Robe, David Harvey, Lyle G. Best, et al. 2024. “Effect of an Arsenic Mitigation Program on Arsenic Exposure in American Indian Communities: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial of the Community-Led Strong Heart Water Study Program.” Environmental Health Perspectives 132 (3): 037007–1. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP12548.
• Gilbert, Jonathan H., and Michel T. Kohl. 2024. “Special Issue: Indigenous Research and Co‐stewardship of Wildlife.” Journal of Wildlife Management 88 (6): 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.22625.
• Goncharov, Alexey, Richard F. Haase, Azara Santiago-Rivera, Gayle Morse, Robert J. McCaffrey, Robert Rej, and David O. Carpenter. 2008. “High Serum PCBs Are Associated with Elevation of Serum Lipids and Cardiovascular Disease in a Native American Population.” Environmental Research 106 (2): 226–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2007.10.006.
• Gordon (Iñupiaq), Heather Sauyaq Jean, J. Ashleigh Ross, Cheryl Bauer-Armstrong, Maria Moreno, Rachel Byington (Choctaw), and Nicole Bowman (Lunaape/Mohican). 2023. “Integrating Indigenous Traditional Ecological Knowledge of Land into Land Management through Indigenous-Academic Partnerships.” Land Use Policy 125 (February):106469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2022.106469.
• Gordon, Rachel, and Judith T. Zelikoff. 2024. “Fertility in Indigenous Communities: An Environmental Justice Perspective.” EXPLORE 20 (2): 271–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.explore.2023.12.011.
• Grumet, Louis, and John M. Caher. 2021. This Land Is My Land: An Insider’s Account of the 1974 Mohawk Attempt to Reclaim New York State. Troy, New York: The Troy Book Makers.
• Haslam, Alyson, Cassandra J. Nikolaus, and Ka’Imi A. Sinclair. 2024. “Association of Food Environment Characteristics with Health Outcomes in Counties with a High Proportion of Native American Residents.” Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition 19 (5): 665–77. https://doi.org/10.1080/19320248.2022.2101414.
• Hill, Christina Gish. 2024. National Parks, Native Sovereignty. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.
• Kimmerer, Robin Wall. 2019. Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press.
• Krawec, Patty. 2022. Becoming Kin: An Indigenous Call to Unforgetting the Past and Reimagining Our Future. Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf books.
• Kunze, Jenna. 2023. “New York Museum Unveils Repatriation Overhaul After Ethical Awakening.” Native News Online. October 17, 2023. https://nativenewsonline.net/sovereignty/new-york-museum-unveils-repatriation-overhaul-after-ethical-awakening.
• Larroque, Carol M. 2022. “78.3 The Impact of Our Changing Climate on the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Well-Being of Native Americans in the Southwestern United States.” Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry 61 (10): S109–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2022.07.447.
• Leonard, Kelsey, Dominique David-Chavez, Deondre Smiles, Lydia Jennings, Rosanna ’Anolani Alegado, Lani Tsinnajinnie, Joshua Manitowabi, et al. 2023. “Water Back: A Review Centering Rematriation and Indigenous Water Research Sovereignty.” Water Alternatives 16 (2): 374–428. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eih&AN=173353616&site=ehost-live.
• Li, Maggie, Vivian Do, Jada L. Brooks, Markus Hilpert, Jeff Goldsmith, Steven N. Chillrud, Tauqeer Ali, et al. 2023. “Fine Particulate Matter Composition in American Indian vs. Non-American Indian Communities.” Environmental Research 237 (November):117091. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2023.117091.
• Li, Maggie, Markus Hilpert, Jeff Goldsmith, Jada L. Brooks, Jenni A. Shearston, Steven N. Chillrud, Tauqeer Ali, et al. 2022. “Air Pollution in American Indian Versus Non–American Indian Communities, 2000–2018.” American Journal of Public Health 112 (4): 615–23. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2021.306650.
• Lindschouw, Camilla. 2023. “Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Upholds the Onondaga Nation’s Right to Challenge Illegal Land Acquisition | Cultural Survival,” August 31, 2023. https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/inter-american-commission-human-rights-upholds-onondaga-nations-right-challenge-illegal-land.
• Mitchell, F.M. 2019. “Water (in)Security and American Indian Health: Social and Environmental Justice Implications for Policy, Practice, and Research.” Public Health 176 (November):98–105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2018.10.010.
• Newman, Joan, Bita Behforooz, Amy G. Khuzwayo, Mia V. Gallo, and Lawrence M. Schell. 2014. “PCBs and ADHD in Mohawk Adolescents.” Neurotoxicology and Teratology 42 (March):25–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ntt.2014.01.005.
• Orr, Steve. 2022. “Plan 2014 Review Identifies Need for Interaction with Indigenous Nations.” Shared Waters Newsletter., February 8, 2022. https://ijc.org/en/plan-2014-review-identifies-need-interaction-indigenous-nations.
• Parsons, Meg, Karen Fisher, and Roa Petra Crease. 2021. “Environmental Justice and Indigenous Environmental Justice.” In Decolonizing Blue Spaces in the Anthropocene, by Meg Parsons, Karen Fisher, and Roa Petra Crease, 39–73. Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61071-5_2.
• Parsons, Meg, Lara Taylor, and Roa Crease. 2021. “Indigenous Environmental Justice within Marine Ecosystems: A Systematic Review of the Literature on Indigenous Peoples’ Involvement in Marine Governance and Management.” Sustainability 13 (8): 4217. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084217.
• Redvers, Nicole, Paula Aubrey, Yuria Celidwen, and Kyle Hill. 2023. “Indigenous Peoples: Traditional Knowledges, Climate Change, and Health.” Edited by Madhukar Pai. PLOS Global Public Health 3 (10): e0002474. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgph.0002474.
• Redvers, Nicole, Yuria Celidwen, Clinton Schultz, Ojistoh Horn, Cicilia Githaiga, Melissa Vera, Marlikka Perdrisat, et al. 2022. “The Determinants of Planetary Health: An Indigenous Consensus Perspective.” The Lancet Planetary Health 6 (2): e156–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(21)00354-5.
• Russell, Emily W. B. 1983. “Indian-Set Fires in the Forests of the Northeastern United States.” Ecology 64 (1): 78–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/1937331.
• Sasaki, Nozomi, Gayle Morse, Laura Jones, and David O. Carpenter. 2023. “Effects of Mixtures of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) and Three Organochlorine Pesticides on Cognitive Function Differ between Older Mohawks at Akwesasne and Older Adults in NHANES.” Environmental Research 236 (November):116861. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2023.116861.
• Schell, Lawrence M., Mia V. Gallo, Anthony P. DeCaprio, Lech Hubicki, Melinda Denham, and Julia Ravenscroft. 2004. “Thyroid Function in Relation to Burden of PCBs, p, P′-DDE, HCB, Mirex and Lead among Akwesasne Mohawk Youth: A Preliminary Study.” Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology 18 (2): 91–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.etap.2004.01.010.
• Snow, Dean R., ed. 1996. In Mohawk Country: Early Narratives About a Native People. The Iroquois and Their Neighbors. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.
• Stotz, Sarah A., Luciana E. Hebert, Lisa Scarton, Kelli Begay, Kelly Gonzales, Heather Garrow, Spero M. Manson, Susan M. Sereika, and Denise Charron-Prochownik. 2024. “Relationship Between Food Insecurity and Healthy Eating Behavior for Gestational Diabetes Risk Reduction Among American Indian and Alaska Native Adolescent and Young Adult Females: A Qualitative Exploration.” Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 56 (9): 622–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2024.06.004.
• Treuer, David. 2021. “Return the National Parks to the Tribes.” The Atlantic, April 12, 2021. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/05/return-the-national-parks-to-the-tribes/618395/.
• Tulowiecki, Stephen J., and Chris P. S. Larsen. 2015. “Native American Impact on Past Forest Composition Inferred from Species Distribution Models, Chautauqua County, New York.” Ecological Monographs 85 (4): 557–81. https://doi.org/10.1890/14-2259.1.
• Tulowiecki, Stephen J., Emma R. Ranney, Emily M. Keenan, Gabrielle M. Neubert, and Marcie L. Hogan. 2022. “Localized Native American Impacts on Past Forest Composition Across a Regional Extent in Northeastern United States.” Journal of Biogeography 49 (6): 1099–1109. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14369.
• Werdel, Ty J., David Matarrita‐Cascante, and Jacob E. Lucero. 2024. “State of Traditional Ecological Knowledge in the Wildlife Management Profession.” The Journal of Wildlife Management 88 (6): e22579. https://doi.org/10.1002/jwmg.22579.
• Zhi Li, Theresa Tsoodle, Mengye Chen, Shang Gao, Jiaqi Zhang, Yixin Wen, Tiantian Yang, Farina King, and Yang Hong. 2024. “Future Heavy Rainfall and Flood Risks for Native Americans Under Climate and Demographic Changes: A Case Study in Oklahoma.” Weather, Climate & Society 16 (1): 143–54. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-23-0005.1.