Each year during Native American Heritage Month in November, school classrooms around the country focus on Indigenous history. For educators in Illinois, this fall marks the first school year with a new state mandate to teach Native histories in elementary and high school classrooms, a shift that brings Illinois into alignment with at least 14 other states that require teaching Indigenous histories. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Schools taking on the work of teaching Indigenous histories must understand how schools have historically been tools for violence, land theft, and assimilation against Native students and communities.