Finding forgotten Indigenous landscapes with electromagnetic technology

The Association on American Indian Affairs alerts community members when they learn of potentially sensitive cultural items going up for auction so they can take action to retrieve them. Many of these sensitive items were stolen from tribal nations, bands, or communities.

Fiddler Dennis Stroughmatt plays French Creole music, sings, and speaks in Missouri French to raise awareness about the language and culture no longer widely practiced in the region.

Native and Indigenous individuals are using TikTok to share aspects of their traditions, challenge stereotypes, and empower young people to be proud of their culture. The videos range from instructional, teaching people indigenous languages or dance, to putting a "cultural spin" on trending content. The hashtag #NativeTikTok has over 1.3 billion views and users comment that the videos help them feel more connected to and proud of their cultures. The videos follow the tradition of preserving culture through storytelling and offer positive representations of Native and Indigenous people and their cultures.

In 1890, an anthropologist used an early audio recording device called a phonograph to record three spokesmen for the Passamaquoddy tribe singing songs, telling stories, and pronouncing simple words. After years of efforts to eradicate Native American culture and language, these recordings were found again and shared with modern-day members of the Passamaquoddy tribe, who now use it to transcribe, interpret, and add to their cultural knowledge. The songs and stories have already begun making their way back into tribal events.

Patrick Ball, cofounder of the nonprofit Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG), has helped use quantitative data to put numbers behind things that were before unprovable — i.e. the difference between genocide and random violence. Ball and HRDAG have analyzed existing data to come up with the "invisible" data, overlaying several sets of statistics with machine learning to come up with stats like the fact that you were eight times more likely to be killed by the army in the Ixil region in the early 1980s if you were indigenous. Ball also advises nine truth commissions, four UN commissions, and more.

Timumachtikan Nawat involucra directamente a los abuelos y abuelas hablantes de náhuat en la enseñanza dentro de su plataforma, organizando talleres virtuales sobre diversos aspectos de la cultura náhuat salvadoreña, como la vestimenta tradicional, sabores artesanales, mitología náhuat, música en náhuat y la cultura del maíz, entre otros—esfuerzos que no solo preservan el idioma, sino que también mantienen vivas las prácticas y conocimientos ancestrales.

The U.S. Board of Geographic Names and the Oregon Geographic Names Board are changing offensive and racist geographic place names in the state. When looking to change a name, the boards reach out to community members and experts for recommendations. They also review new name proposals that locals submit for both unnamed and named locations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese Canadian Museum and the Chinatown Storytelling Centre both opened in Vancouver with the goal of documenting and honoring the role of Chinese immigrants in Canadian history. Roughly 13,000 people have visited each museum since their openings, and members of the Chinese Canadian community say the exhibits preserve important stories while acknowledging the harm Chinese Candians have faced.

The Nahrein Network funds projects that strengthen Iraq’s cultural and heritage infrastructure. Many grantees have deep historical knowledge of cultural preservation but haven’t been able to access funding due to sanctions, international isolation, and civil war. The funded projects’ approach to cultural preservation must be rooted in local socio-economic interests and the Network provides mentoring and helps in other ways, like supporting visiting scholarships abroad. The Network’s solutions focus on a long-term relationship building as a way to push for an inclusive post-conflict cultural environments.

Students and educators in Nebraska are driving the change to change history curriculum to reflect history that places more emphasis on the narratives on indigenous and marginalized peoples. Students are emphasizing of historically erased narratives by creating social media videos, as well as creating petitions to change curricula in English and history classes.