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The first American Indian Day was celebrated in May 1916 in New York. Red Fox James, a Blackfeet Indian, rode on horseback from state to state, getting endorsements from 24 state governments, to have a day to honor American Indians. Here are important dates and relevant demographics on American Indians:
Why does the timeline start after the arrival of Europeans? Didn’t Native Americans have a history prior to that?
DiversrityInc. Your font is too tiny so one cannot really get the facts of your articles and certainly cannot be reprinted for any good use. Help your readers out increase the font size PLEASE.
I appreciate the list of Natives you have but I would like it if you’d talk about/research the many LIVING Native people. Too often are we relegated to the long ago times. I’m including a list of more contemporary Natives for people to learn about:
Sherman Alexie
Paula Gunn-Allen
Dennis Banks
Adam Beach
Ben NIghthorse Campbell
Vine Deloria Jr.
Sam Deloria
Grahame Greene
Betty May Jumper
N. Scott Momaday
Billy Mills
Louis Riel
Robby Robertson
Will Rogers
Buffy St. Marie
Leslie Marmon Silko
Wes Studi
Jay Silverheels
Maria Tallchief
Jim Thorpe
John Trudell
James Welch
Chris Eyre
Gary Farmer
Robert Mirabal
R. Carols Nakai
Cmdr John Herrington
Louise Ercrich
Gary Schildt
Quannah Parker
Elouise Cobell
This is not an exhaustive list. Learn more about living Natives and how they contribute to our lives today. The past is improtant but so too is the here and now.
Two historic and precident dates for AI/AN were Executuve Orders signed by President CLinton. In 1996 he siged an Executive Order mandating that all Federal Deparrtments develop plans on how they can assist the 34 Tribal Colleges. The Second EO was a reinforcment about the Governments requirement to Consult with Indian Tribes on Matters That May Affect Them. These two EO’s are landmarks because they forced the FED to live up to the promises made and broken in all the Treaties (See also US Constitution) Article One, Section 8 on tribal soveirgnity that establised the “Government-To-Government relationship between Indian Tribes and the Federal Government. These two documents were continued by Pres. George Bush, and Barack Obama. People rarely are aware that as part of these, every Federal Dept must now summits an annual plan on how they will allocate targeted resources to Indian Tribes. They also have a points-of-contact at every deparment and agencies within departments.
Will each reservation be allowed to submit a budget request to meet the needs of the veterans who are enrolled on each reservation.
How about the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 which gave tribal government a much greater voice into the removal of children from their homes. Adoptions prior to that into white families was a form of cultural genocide, and occured large-scale in the Mid-West. Also, I agree that this is very biased towards the Europeans history, as there is no mention of the Haudenashaunee contibutions to democracy, their culture (I am not one of them, but live amongst them).
How can you say 300 Lakota Sioux killed in last BATTLE between Federal Forces and American Indians?? Everyone KNOWS that it was not a battle, Those were woman, children and old people, including the old chief and they did not fight, they ran. It is all well and good to have Diversity and information about American Indians and a timeline, but nothing could be so offensive to the Sioux as to call that a battle.
Perhaps you should have included North Dakota, South Dakota, and Minnesota. There are about 22 Indian reservations combined in those states.
He (singular) is a Blackfoot Indian not “Blackfeet Indian”
What about Minnesota, North and South Dakotas? These states have American Indians living and working. I feel offended that these states were not included in this grouping. Sioux and Chippewa
Are you only counting the people who happen to be full bloods? How about those who happen to have a strong family history in one tribe or another? If you happen to have African American Blood in your family no matter if you are only a quarter or an eighth you are counted as being black. Why is it not done for our Native Americans? Thank you.
Red Fox James was a Blackfeet, there is no blackfoot tribe.
It’s nice to be offered these statistic’s during our month, but it seems a Native writer might have had a less ditant view of us. The third commented touch on a topic close to us, we are stereotyped as some sort of aritfact from three hundred years ago. Tha’s not what the Native people want to see or have frontpaged as what represents us. All of our acoplishments as Dr.’s ., Lawyers, Artit’s and Writers and traditional leaders in the modern world need to be what European people think of when they think of us. Again, just E mail the writer of the third comment here… they had a great handle on the topic….
I am very surprised that there is no mention here of the US-Dakota Conflict of 1862 in which the United States carried out the largest government sponsored mass execution US history. This conflict was in response to the Dakota being forced off their land to a tiny section along the river where they were starving (any Indian who left the area was shot on sight and the United States paid a bounty to their killer). This mass hanging was carried out the day after Christmas in 1862 and the women/children were marched to Fort Snelling internment camp where many starved and froze as they had to live outdoors for the winter. For the next several generations, children as young as 4 and 5 years old were forced into Catholic boarding schools where their native tongue was beaten out of them, many were sexually abused, and grew up to join the miliary and develop even more extensive PTSD. The ban on Native American spiritual practices was not overturned until 1978 and the Dakota exile from Minnesota is still on the books to this day! This year is the 150th Anniversary of the hangings.
The above are just a few more facts and figures that must have been inadvertently overlooked – thanks!!