Celebrating Native and Indigenous Heritage Month 2026

Black and white pattern evoking a native style

Dedicated university resources include:

UMD’s Office of Multicultural Involvement and Community Advocacy (MICA) and its Native American and Indigenous Student Union
Division of Student Affairs and its Unity Center, featuring cultural spaces including The Braid
UMD Powwow
Indigenous Futures Lab

Clark School Community,

November is Native and Indigenous Heritage Month, celebrating the traditions and knowledge shared by Indigenous cultures that underpin our society. Engineers are fortunate to have these traditions and knowledge as inspiration: As we seek more sustainable solutions for society, Native and Indigenous systems of observation, resource management, and ecological balance are ideal places to look.

Maryland Engineering talked with Piscataway tribal member and historian, Mario Harley, who has partnered with UMD and the Clark School in the classroom and our Terrapin Works makerspace, about the critical connection between ancestral practices and modern sustainability. “Everything began with the responsibility to protect the land and water of our home,” he said. “We need to work with, not against, the natural world.”

In honoring Native and Indigenous engineers and members of our community, we should answer that call by integrating Native and Indigenous histories, partnerships, outreach, and support into our goal of creating a sustainable future for all.

Terrapin Works collaborated with the Piscataway Tribe, on whose ancestral lands UMD sits, to 3D-print replicas of historical peace medals from the 1600s and 1700s to serve as accessible educational tools for Piscataway youth, UMD students, and residents and visitors of the local area. Our faculty and graduate students, along with partner White Earth Tribal and Community College, hosted STEM transportation and energy camps for children in Minnesota to revitalize Ojibwe tribal culture while boosting educational and career opportunities on the state’s largest Native American reservation.

UMD’s land acknowledgment asks us to leave our campus and state better than we found them, and the revised acknowledgement includes a list of resources to serve as a starting point for all of us. I encourage us all to read the land acknowledgement and join campus-wide events, open to all, in celebration of Native and Indigenous Heritage Month. The Clark School’s CMSE, along with the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science at UMD and national organizations, including American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES), are also excellent resources to foster mentorship, belonging, and success in STEM among Native and Indigenous students.

Sincerely,

Samuel Graham
Dean and Nariman Farvardin Professor

Published November 5, 2026