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Native American Heritage Month

Published on Wednesday, November 04, 2009

What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S., has resulted in the month of November being designated for that purpose.

One of the very proponents of an American Indian Day was Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. He persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the "First Americans" and for three years they adopted such a day. In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kans., formally approved a plan concerning American Indian Day. It directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call upon the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.

In 1990 President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 "National American Indian Heritage Month." Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including "Native American Heritage Month" and "National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month") have been issued each year since 1994. Theme for this year's heritage month is "Celebrating Tribal Nations: America's Great Partners."

Staring on Monday, The Americas regional page will focus on the contributions of the various Tribal Nations to the United States. Additionally, there will be materials addressing the history and cultures of Native people within the Western Hemisphere from the First Nations of Canada through the historic civilizations of Mesoamerica and South America and the native cultures of the Caribbean.

For additional materials available on America.gov, please check out:

History and Government

02/13/2009 Legendary Indian Chiefs: Leaders Who Advocated for Their Tribes

12/05/2008 New U.S. Coin Series to Honor American Indians

08/28/2008 American Indian Vote Will Be a Factor in Several Swing States

08/06/2008 Sovereignty of Indian Tribes

04/28/2008 Guiding Lights to a New World: Pocahontas and Sacagawea (from Women of Influence)

04/27/2008 Wilma Pearl Mankiller (from Women of Influence)

04/05/2008 Early America (from Outline of U.S. History)

Culture

02/06/2009 The Toughest Indian in the World (from Multi-Cultural Literature in the United States Today)

02/06/2009 Simple Memories as Poetry and Pulling Down the Clouds (from Multi-Cultural Literature)