Today’s Post by Joe Farace
One of the first 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, NY. 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. Its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, declared the second Saturday of each May as American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.
The first American Indian Day 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 legislators enacted such a day in 1919 and several states have designated Columbus Day as Native American Day. Indigenous Peoples’ Days celebrated across the United States on the second Monday in October, and is an official city and state holiday in various localities. 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 have been issued each year since 1994.
Native American Heritage Month is celebrated each year in November. It is a time to celebrate the traditions, languages and stories of Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and affiliated Island communities and ensure their rich histories and contributions continue to thrive with each passing generation.
This November and every month, we celebrate the culture and heritage of these remarkable Americans who deeply enrich the quality and character of our Nation. We celebrate Indian Country with its remarkable diversity of American Indian and Alaska Native cultures and peoples while remembering and honoring our veterans who have sacrificed so much to defend our Nation.
This year’s theme at Interior 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.
How I Made this Photograph. I captured this image during a dance at the Old Town section of Albuquerque during on on the rips I made when Mary went there on business. It was made with a Canon EOS 50D and a Tamron 18-270mm f/3.5-6.3 VC PZD that I no longer own. Exposure in Program mode was 1/320 sec at f/6.3 and ISO 640 with a plus one-third stop exposure compensation. (This is a SOOC JPEG image file.)