About National 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 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.
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.
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.
Executive and Legislative Documents
The Law Library of Congress has compiled guides to commemorative
observations, including a comprehensive inventory of the Public
Laws, Presidential
Proclamations and congressional resolutions related to Native
American Heritage Month.
About this Site
This Web portal is a collaborative project of the Library of Congress
and the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery
of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution, United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum and U.S. National Archives and Records
Administration.
Other Dedicated Web Sites
|