National Native American Heritage Month
Join Jesuit's Equity & Inclusion Office in celebrating during November

Event

National American Indian Heritage Month celebrates and recognizes the accomplishments of the peoples who were the original inhabitants, explorers and settlers of the United States.

One of the founders of the movement to recognize native people’s contribution to American society and culture 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.  A year later, the American Indian Association’s president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, called upon the country to observe and declare the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Native Americans as citizens. From a day to a week to a month, 1990 marked the first time Native Americans were honored for the whole month. Since then every president has acknowledged and honored the rich history and culture of the Native American tribes.

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