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Like plenty of U.S. children, my history education remained incomplete despite graduating from a public high school. I don't blame my teachers, tasked as they were with squeezing a few centuries into each semester while aiming to meet standardized testing benchmarks.

Reading more history misses an important point, though.

More than 5 million people identified as Native American in the 2010 census, people with direct connections to the nations that predate colonial (and colonialist) America. Yet a historical focus is often so prevalent in discussions of Native America that it creates a barrier to recognizing current events.

The 1845 map above, created a year before Iowa was admitted as a state, encapsulates the erasure and appropriation of Indigenous peoples. Geometric white settlements – counties – bear the names of various Native leaders those municipalities displaced. Poweshiek, Mahaska, Black Hawk.

Part of today's grappling with this past means confronting a legacy that's mixed into the very earth.

I suspect you'll spot more land acknowledgements from companies and organizations in the coming year or two. This small act speaks to the traditional territories of Native Americans who stewarded the lands and waters on which the majority of U.S. residents now live, work, play – and "own."

However, the most crucial element of bringing to the fore the modern experiences of Native Americans will be stories told in the present tense by Native storytellers, something I'm particularly excited to see. Likewise for more prominent public iconography.

If you're looking for entry points into learning about contemporary Native America, I suggest a thought-provoking Radiolab episode about adoption, an illuminating photography exhibit on dating and family by Tailyr Irvine, and a fascinating podcast episode that explores the real story of giving thanks, from Matika Wilbur.

I'm biased because I've had the fortune to work with both Irvine and Wilbur this year, but I promise you'll learn so much.

For poetry, here's a celebration of Joy Harjo, the first Native American to serve as U.S. Poet Laureate and, announced last week, only the second person to serve three terms. Her primary project demonstrates that the Library of Congress not only contains the historical narratives of Indigenous peoples but also the songs of today.