Table of Diversity Weekly: Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month.

"The first time an American Indian Day was formally designated in the U.S. may have been in 1916 when the governor of New York fixed the second Saturday in May for his state's observance. Several states celebrated the fourth Friday in September as American Indian Day. IN 1919, the Illinois state legislature enacted a bill doing so. In Massachusetts, the governor issued a proclamation, following a 1935 law, naming the day that would become American Indian Day in any given year.

In 1968, California Governor Ronald Reagan signed a resolution designating the fourth Friday in September as American Indian Day. In 1998, the California State Assembly enacted legislation creating Native American Day as an official state holiday.

In 1989, the South Dakota state legislature passed a bill proclaiming 1990 as the 'Year of Reconciliation' between American Indian and White citizens. According to that act, South Dakota Governor George S. Mickelson designated Columbus Day as the state's American Indian Day, making it a state-sanctioned holiday.

The 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the western hemisphere in 1492 was the occasion for national and local celebrations. However, for Native people, it was an occasion they could neither fully embrace nor participate in.

Congress acknowledged their concerns regarding the Columbus Quincentennial by enacting Senate Joint Resolution 217 (Pub. L. 102-188), which designated 1992 as the 'Year of the American Indian.' It was signed by President George H.W. Bush on December 4, 1991. According to that act, President Bush issued on March 2, 1992, Proclamation 6407 announcing 1992 as the 'Year of the American Indian.'

The American Indian response to the anniversary was marked by public protests. Yet, it also was seen by many in that community as a unique, year-long opportunity to hold public education events, commemorations of ancestral sacrifices and contributions to America, and celebrations for the survival of Native peoples over five centuries.

In 1976, the United States bicentennial year, Congress passed a resolution authorizing President Ford to proclaim a week in October as 'Native American Awareness Week.' On October 8, 1976, he issued his presidential proclamation doing so. Since then, Congress and the President have observed a day, a week, or a month in honor of the American Indian and Alaska Native people. While the proclamations do not set a national theme for the observane, they allow each federal department and agency to develop ways of celebrating and honoring the Nation's Native American heritage." -U.S. Department of the Interior

What is this year's theme?

"The Department of the Interior has announced that this year's theme is Celebrating Tribal Sovereignty and Identity. Tribal sovereignty ensures that any decisions about Tribes with regard to their property and citizens are made with their participation and consent. The federal trust responsibility is a legal obligation under which the United States 'has charged itself with moral obligations of the highest responsibility and trust' toward Indian tribes.

The Department of the Interior plays a key role in strengthening Tribal sovereignty, living up to trust and treaty responsibilities, and conducting robust Tribal consultation. Much of the Department's work under Secretary Haaland's leadership also centers on acknowledging the impact that relocation, forced assimilation, and lack of critical funding has on Indigenous communities across the country. We are committed to elevating those issues while empowering Tribal governments and Indigenous peoples." -U.S. Department of the Interior

Who is Secretary Deb Haaland?

"Secretary Deb Haaland made history when she became the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary. She is a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and a 35th generation New Mexican. 

After running for New Mexico Lieutenant Governor in 2014, Secretary Haaland became the first Native American woman to be elected to lead a State Party. She is one of the first Native American women to serve in Congress. In Congress, she focused on environmental justice, climate change, missing and murdered indigenous women, and family-friendly policies." -U.S. Department of the Interior

Who Are Native Americans?

There are 574 federally recognized Indian Nations (variously called tribes, nations, bands, pueblos, communities and native villages) in the United States. Approximately 229 of these ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse nations are located in Alaska; the other federally recognized tribes are located in 35 other states. Additionally, there are state recognized tribes located throughout the United States recognized by their respective state governments.

Native peoples and governments have inherent rights and a political relationship with the U.S. government that does not derive from race or ethnicity. Tribal members are citizens of three sovereigns: their tribe, the United States, and the state in which they reside. They are also individuals in an international context with the rights afforded to any other individual.

The essence of tribal sovereignty is the ability to govern and to protect and enhance the health, safety, and welfare of tribal citizens within tribal territory. Tribal governments maintain the power to determine their own governance structures and enforce laws through police departments and tribal courts. The government exercise these inherent rights through the development of their distinct forms of government, determining citizenship; establishing civil and criminal laws for their nations; taxing, licensing, regulating, and maintaining and exercising the power to exclude wrongdoers from tribal lands.

In addition, tribal governments are responsible for a broad range of governmental activities on tribal lands, including education, law enforcement, judicial systems, health care, environmental protection, natural resource management, and the development and maintenance of basic infrastructure such as housing, roads, bridges, sewers, public buildings, telecommunications, broadband and electrical services, and solid waste treatment and disposal."

Learn More

Thanksgiving or National Day of Mourning?

"One of America's earliest and most enduring legends is the story of Thanksgiving: that Pilgrims who had migrated to the new Plymouth Colony from England sat down with the local Wampanoag Indians to celebrate the first successful harvest in 1621. It makes for a great story—cultures coming together and sharing the bounty of the land that would eventually become America. However, the reality of interactions between colonists and the local Native American peoples is a far more complex story of trade, cooperation, and intense conflict as the two societies merged into America.

In the 1600s, when the first English settlers began to arrive in New England, there were about 60,000 Native Americans living in what would later become the New England colonies (Plymouth, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Haven, and Rhode Island). In the first English colonies in the Northeast (as well as in Virginia), there were initial conflicts and concerns over the threat colonists posed to the Native Americans’ long-established territory. Still, colonists were able to build thriving colonies with the help of locals.

Over time, however, relations between the now-established colonies and the local peoples deteriorated. Some of the problems were unintentionally introduced by the colonists, like smallpox and other diseases that the English settlers had unwittingly brought over on their ships. Although the colonists suffered diseases of their own early on, they were largely immune to the microbes they brought over to the New World. The local Native American populations, however, had no such immunity to diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, cholera, and the bubonic plague.

Some colonial leaders, such as the Puritan minister Increase Mather, believed that the illness and decimation of the New England Native Americans was an act of God to support the colonists’ right to the land: “[A]bout this time [1631] the Indians began to be quarrelsome touching the Bounds of the Land which they had sold to the English, but God ended the Controversy by sending the Smallpox amongst the Indians.” Some colonial governments used the devastation as a way to convert the natives to Christianity, making them into “praying Indians” and moving them to “praying towns,” or reservations."

Read More

About the National Day of Mourning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-okm80fap68

Learn More

Podcast-History This Week: Thanksgiving Reconsidered

"November 26, 1970. In Plymouth, Massachusetts, on the 350th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ arrival, protestors gather under a statue of Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader who had made peace with the Pilgrims, and partook in the legendary Thanksgiving meal. This protest was organized by Wamsutta Frank James, a Wampanoag activist who wanted to draw attention to the full story of Thanksgiving – a story of fear, violence, and oppression that spanned generations. America’s reckoning with the truth of Thanksgiving, James argued, would empower indigenous people to fight for their equal rights. This protest – a National Day of Mourning – continues to this day, now led by James’s granddaughter. So what is the true story of Thanksgiving? And why is it so important for us to remember?

Special thanks to Kisha James, Paula Peters, and David Silverman, author of This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving."

Listen Now!

In the News Today

"In a landmark victory for tribal sovereignty and the rights of tribal nations, the United States Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a critical federal law protecting the rights of Native children to remain connected to their families, community, and culture. In its decision, the court rejected constitutional challenges to the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), legislation that seeks to ensure Native families stay together and Native children are raised by tribal members.

For centuries, Indigenous families and communities in the US have endured egregious abuse and harm through so-called “child welfare” interventions. These included boarding schools where authorities violently indoctrinated Indigenous children with white Western culture and policies aimed at promoting adoption of Indigenous children by white families.

In 1978, after decades of Indigenous-led activism, Congress passed ICWA and established federal standards to limit the removal of Indian children, promote stability, and restore families, culture, and tribal autonomy. Indigenous advocates and communities have since defended family integrity and resisted challenges to ICWA seeking to undermine tribal sovereignty.

This decision has many advocates breathing a sigh of relief, but it doesn’t fix the country’s broken approach to child protection."

Read More

This week's activity

Raise awareness and take action!

About the Native American Rights Fund: "The Native American Rights Fund holds governments accountable. We fight to protect Native American rights, resources, and lifeways through litigation, legal advocacy, and legal expertise.

Since 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has provided legal assistance to Native American tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide who might otherwise have gone without adequate representation. NARF has successfully asserted and defended the most important rights of Indians and tribes in hundreds of major cases, and has achieved significant results in such critical areas as tribal sovereignty, treaty rights, natural resource protection, voting rights, and Indian education."

Check out these Issues & Priorities from the Native American Rights Fund. What do you need to learn or unlearn about these issues? Did you know that these are opportunities for Native Americans? Take one of these issues and go on a deeper dive to learn more about the systems in place that help or harm Native Americans. For example, Boarding School Healing. What laws were in place, what was the intent behind the law, and what was the impact? Where do we go from here?

Be sure to leave a comment to get engagement points for a discount towards your next purchase!