Native Youth Leadership and Initiatives

As the United Indians of All Tribes Education Coalition (UIATEC) wrapped up our annual retreat to reflect on our 2024–2025 initiatives, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of our key learnings and findings—especially from our Native Youth Reading Challenge.

Native Youth Reading Challenge

What We Witnessed:
We’re celebrating a year of meaningful engagement and deep impact—huge shout-out to the SALT Native Youth Leadership Team! From peer mentorship to program planning, their passion, vision, and creativity shaped every aspect of the Reading Challenge. We witnessed remarkable growth in our youth leaders, and in turn, they taught us adults more than we ever expected.

• Representation Matters:
  Again and again, we saw the joy on young people’s faces as they discovered books where they could see themselves—proof of how deeply representation resonates.
• The Power of Togetherness:
  Teens consistently expressed (sometimes in quiet ways) how much they valued being in shared spaces with peers from different districts. They laughed, played, and showed up excited to connect. These gatherings have become places of learning, healing, and community-building.

What We Learned:

• Simplifying Technology:
  While we used an app for registration and tracking reading minutes, we learned it wasn’t accessible for all families. In response, we’re moving to a simplified registration process using a basic form — and removing reading minute tracking altogether. Less tech, more connection.
• In-Person Outreach Matters:
  Instead of relying on digital tracking, we’re focusing more on visiting schools, attending family gatherings, and being present at district open houses. We’re also planning another big event at Daybreak Star to foster deeper, human-to-human engagement.

Throughout the year, we’ve continued to invite Native authors, host cultural and traditional activities, and offer youth opportunities to engage in art, storytelling, beading, weaving, and more. These are not just activities—they are acts of cultural transmission, healing, and celebration of our collective strength and richness.

We’re excited to continue building with our communities and centering Native youth in all we do.

Native Youth Book Group: An Interview with a Student Leader

This year, the Native Youth Book Group was co-organized by a senior high school student and a Native Education Coordinator. The program featured in-depth discussions around Indigenous literature and was enriched by the student’s graphic design skills, which brought creativity, accessibility, and depth to the experience. I had the pleasure of interviewing this talented student to learn more about his contributions and reflections.

Mai: What was your role in this program?
Student: I want to be an artist and I’m really interested in graphic design. I created presentation materials for Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adult (Native Youth Book Group) and The Summer of Bitter and Sweet (Native 2SLGBTQIA+ Book Group). I hadn’t read the books beforehand, so it was a great opportunity to dive deep into them. I designed slides with questions and activities and learned how to structure learning targets and discussion topics.

Mai: What was challenging for you?
Student: I had never used Canva.com before, so I had to teach myself how to use it as I went, which was a bit challenging. Also, this was my first time participating in a book group. But I truly enjoyed every part of it — from making the presentations to being part of the discussions. It was a very open and conversational space. I got to come together with others as a community and think deeply in ways I hadn’t experienced before.

Mai: What were some of your positive takeaways?
Student: This was my first time joining both a book group and a Native literacy program. It opened up so many doors for me and made a long-lasting positive impact. I talked to my family about the experience, and they could tell I was feeling uplifted and happy. That made them happy too.

Mai: What are your plans after graduation?
Student: I really enjoyed the graphic design part of the program, and I want to take that further and make it part of my career path.

Mai: What advice would you give to younger students?
Student: Don’t stress about it—it’s super chill and a great environment to be with other Native peers. I also really appreciated meeting weekly. For me, it was a calm and grounding space. I’m grateful to be part of this community, and I feel a real sense of belonging. I’m proud to be part of something so meaningful.

Mai: Thank you for your time and for talking with me!
Student: Thank you so much! I’m looking forward to the next time.

(All images courtesy of M. Takahashi)

Mai Takahashi is a Youth Service librarian/School Age Program Manager at the Seattle Public Library (SPL). She was born and raised in Japan and came to the US as an adult in 2003 and pursued a public librarianship since then. Her work at SPL involves a lot of partnership with the urban Indigenous/Indigiqueer communities and this is her 13th year at SPL. Mai was one of the ALSC EDI Fellows in 2020 and returned to the now permanent committee as a co-chair. Outside of SPL and besides being a co-chair of the ALSC EDI committee and a co-chair of the City of Seattle AANHPI caucus group, Mai enjoys hiking, standup comedy, and eating noodles.

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 As the United Indians of All Tribes Education Coalition (UIATEC) wrapped up our annual retreat to reflect on our 2024–2025 initiatives, I wanted to take a moment to highlight some of our key learnings and findings—especially from our Native Youth Reading Challenge. Native Youth Reading Challenge What We Witnessed:We’re celebrating a year of meaningful engagement and deep impact—huge shout-out to the SALT Native Youth Leadership Team! From peer mentorship to program planning, their passion, vision, and creativity shaped every aspect of the Reading Challenge. We witnessed remarkable growth in our youth leaders, and in turn, they taught us adults more than we ever expected. What We Learned: Throughout the year, we’ve continued to invite Native authors, host cultural and traditional activities, and offer youth opportunities to engage in art, storytelling, beading, weaving, and more. These are not just activities—they are acts of cultural transmission, healing, and celebration of our collective…
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