Earth Protectors: Indigenous Environmental Efforts for Kids

Did you know that on October 12th, we celebrate both Indigenous People's Day and Earth Science Week? Long before Europeans settled in the Americas, Indigenous peoples have been caring for the land and learning from it. Now, when nature struggles to survive alongside vast cities, many are still doing so by teaching us the traditions they've know for generations, that save our planet. Find out about just a few of those ways in these titles!

In Norway, there is a bank of frozen seeds underground, storing all the plants of the world. In Just in Case, you can learn about the Svalbard Seed Bank and how they store the world's plants: including those of the Cherokee Nation (the first indigenous people from the United States to store seeds there!).   

If you want to learn about more ways and reason to save our planet's plants, try Can You Hear the Plants Speak? In this story, Nicholas Hummingbird helps us understand how one seed turning into one plant can make a difference to the whole world by supporting pollinators, animals and people.

Now that you understand why plants are so important, take a chance on The Bee Mother . One of our most important pollinators, the Bee Mother follows the journey of a bee from spring through autumn as she helps make a garden of native fruits like huckleberries grow.

In A River's Gifts, we learn what taking one key piece of the environmental puzzle away (like taking the bee from the plants) can do. Learn how the Strong People restored the balance by working with a national park to restore the river to its natural flow.

Want more stories like the ones above? Indigenous Ingenuity is full of stories just like these, sharing how indigenous peoples have rallied behind the planet to save our home from industrial revulsion. 

If you're looking for ways you can learn more native wisdom and maybe practice it yourself, try Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults, which is full of ways to plant, reduce waste, and more, based on Native traditions.