NOVEMBER IS NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

About Native American Heritage Month

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 a whole month being designated for that purpose.


One of the first 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.

BSA/Order of the Arrow Patch honoring Parker.  [Thank you nyoatrader for photo]

 In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kansas, 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. 

Reverend Sherman Coolidge

Photo:  BAE GN 00010B 06077500, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Photo:  BAE GN 00010B 06077500, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

Photo:  BAE GN 00010B 06077500, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution

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.




The year before this proclamation was issued, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day being proclaimed.

 Red Fox James at the White House

Photo:  Library of Congress, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division; Digital ID: (digital file from original negative) hec 05237 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/hec.05237.  Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-hec-05237 (digital file from original negative)

The first American Indian Day in a state was declared on the second Saturday in May 1916 by the governor of New York. Several states celebrate the fourth Friday in September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919. Presently, several states have designated Columbus Day as Native American Day, but it continues to be a day we observe without any recognition as a national legal holiday.

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.

In 2012, President Barack Obama proclaimed November as National Native American Heritage Month.    Read more here.

Come back to fogelsonblog each week in November to read about our featured artists:

Sherman Alexie, author

R. C. Gorman, painter

Wes Studi, actor

Chris Eyre, film maker

Don't forget to visit Fogelson Library to see special displays of the library's holdings dealing with American Indian heritage and each of these important contributors to the arts.

Information courtesy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior