DAR recognizes November as National Native American Heritage Month

Considering that the name Du Quoin is derived from the name of a Native American Patriot, the Beaucoup Creek Chapter, NSDAR, would like to bring attention to the fact that November is designated National Native American Heritage Month.

An effort starting at the turn of the last century to establish recognition for significant contributions by the first Americans to the growth of the U.S., resulted in this government action.

Appropriately, on Veterans Day 2020 the new National Native American Veterans Memorial was opened on the grounds of the Smithsonian's National American Indian Museum in Washington D.C., honoring the service and sacrifices of Native veterans.

Now, a century after those first efforts to honor Native Americans, a whole month has been designated for that purpose.

It started with Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was among the first to call for an American Indian Day. At the time he was director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y., and he persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the "First Americans." For three years they did.

In 1914, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, began an odyssey, riding horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians.

In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association formally approved a plan for American Indian Day. The group's Arapahoe president, the Rev. Sherman Coolidge, issued a call to the United States to make such a day official.

President Calvin Coolidge issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915 declaring the second Saturday of each May as American Indian Day. Coolidge also made the nation's first formal appeal for recognition of Native Americans as citizens.

On Dec. 14, 1915, Red Fox James finished his national horseback tour of states, and presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House.

Despite all the effort, however, there is no record of such a national day being proclaimed.

The first American Indian Day organized in a U.S. state was proclaimed on the second Saturday in May 1916 by the governor of New York.

Several states - including Illinois, which enacted a Native American Day in 1919 - celebrated it on the fourth Friday in September.

In 1990 President George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 as "National American Indian Heritage Month."

Similar proclamations, under similar names, ("Native American Heritage Month" and "National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month") have been issued each year since 1994.