By: Laila Schwin and Valery Warner
November 5, 2021
November 1, 2021, marked the beginning of National Native American Heritage Month in the United States. November has been nationally-recognized as Native American Heritage Month by presidential decree since 1990, although the history of the month can be traced farther back to individual states and the efforts of many Indigenous people.
This month is set to honor the contributions of all Indigenous people within the United States who have made major impacts within our country and have been so often forgotten. Their achievements have been overshadowed by discrimination with a near exclusion of their way of life. This month is also meant to highlight the struggles of Indigenous people in the present day and the fights for their rights that are still ongoing in terms of land sovereignty, access to necessities, and the prevalence of violence against their people.
The history of observance for Native American Heritage Month is relatively-recent on the national scale with prior observances being within individual states and usually confined to a single day. The origins of the observance can be traced back to around 1915 when the Congress of the American Indian Association designated the second Saturday of May to be American Indian Day.
The fight for recognition and observance for Indigenous people continued within that year with Red Fox James, a member of the Blackfoot tribe, riding on horseback throughout the country to get state approval for a day to honor Indigenous people. He presented the White House with 24 state endorsements that he had gained during his travels, but his efforts fell on deaf ears. Other efforts toward gaining observance for this month occurred afterward but only to recognize single days on a state-by-state basis, starting in 1916 with New York.
It took until 1990 for national recognition to be gained when President George W. Bush designated November of that year to be National American Indian Heritage Month. Nearly every year since then, November has been recognized by the president as some form of Indigenous heritage month.
While there are many Indigenous people, both past and present, to be honored within the history of this country, a few notable and less recognized ones are as follows:
- Sequoyah
- John Herrington
- Ben Nighthorse Campbell
- Susan La Flesche Picotte
- Wilma Mankiller
- Allan Houser
- Jim Thorpe
This is in no way a complete list and cannot encompass all of the influential, Indigenous people throughout history, but it is a starting point for recognizing the contributions that these people have made.
Perhaps, we can all take some time this month to support and recognize Indigenous tribes and communities and reflect on the original owners of the land that we now stand upon.
Information for this article can be found at Native American Heritage Month and United States Senate.
THE RETURN OF THE EYE 