A Proclamation on National Native American Heritage Month, 2023
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
During National Native American Heritage Month, we recognize the invaluable contributions of Native peoples that have shaped our country and honor the hundreds of Tribal Nations who continue exercising their inherent sovereignty as vital members of the overlapping system of governments in the United States. We also recommit to supporting Tribal sovereignty; upholding the Federal Government’s solemn trust and treaty responsibilities; and working in partnership with Tribal Nations to advance prosperity, dignity, and safety for all Native peoples.
Since time immemorial, Native communities have passed down rich cultures, knowledge, traditions, and ways of life. But throughout our history, Native peoples’ cultures, identities, and governments were not always seen as a part of this Nation but as a threat to it. Native people were pressured to assimilate, banned from practicing their traditions and sacred ceremonies, and forced from their homes and ancestral homelands. This violence and devastation cost countless lives, tore families apart, and caused lasting damage to Tribal communities and institutions.
Despite centuries of violence and oppression, Native peoples remain resilient and proud. Today, Native Americans are essential to the fabric of the United States. They serve in the United States Armed Forces at higher rates than any other ethnic group. They continue to steward so many of our great lands. Their contributions to science, humanities, arts, public service, and more have brought prosperity for all of us. Their diverse cultures and communities continue to thrive and lead us forward.
Since the beginning of my Administration, I have been determined to help champion a new and better chapter in the story of our Nation-to-Nation relationships. I started by appointing Native Americans to lead in my Administration — including the first Native American Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, dozens of Senate-confirmed Native American officials, and over 80 Native American appointees serving across my Administration and in the Federal courts. I restored the annual White House Tribal Nations Summit to advance communication between key members of my Administration and the leaders of hundreds of Tribal Nations. My Administration formally recognized Indigenous Knowledge as one of the many important bodies of knowledge that contributes to the scientific, technical, social, and economic advancements of the United States and our collective understanding of the natural world.
Together with leadership from Tribal Nations, we are making historic investments in Indian Country. Our American Rescue Plan invested $32 billion in Tribal Nations — the largest one-time direct investment in Indian Country in American history. Our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invested more than $13 billion to rebuild infrastructure, the single largest investment in Indian Country infrastructure in history. Our Inflation Reduction Act also made the largest investment ever to combat the existential threat of climate change, including $700 million dedicated to climate change response in Native communities. Last year, I signed a Presidential Memorandum that improves consultation between the Federal Government and Tribal Nations.
My Administration is also working to address the impacts of harmful Federal policies of the past while ensuring Native communities are safe and healthy. Through the Department of the Interior’s Road to Healing initiative, Native language preservation, public safety initiatives, and bold new investments, we are supporting Native American families and their communities as they heal. We are also working to improve public health and safety for Native Americans. I signed an Executive Order that helps us respond more effectively to the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples. Last year, when we reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, I was proud to include historic provisions that reaffirm Tribal sovereignty and restore Tribal jurisdiction. My budget for Fiscal Year 2024 also requested a $9.1 billion infusion for the Indian Health Service, and I have asked the Congress to make that funding a mandatory part of the Federal budget for the first time in our history.
We are also committed to partnering with Tribal Nations to protect and steward their sacred and ancestral lands and waters. Through Tribal co-stewardship agreements, we work directly with Tribal Nations to make decisions about how to manage those lands that are most precious to them — recognizing and utilizing the invaluable knowledge they have from countless generations. I established new national monuments protecting lands sacred to Tribal Nations at Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni in Arizona, the Camp Hale-Continental Divide in Colorado, and Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada. I also restored protections for the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument in New England and Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah.
This month, we celebrate Native American history and culture. We are reminded that with hard work and a commitment to our founding ideals, we can address the wrongs of our past and become a more perfect Union — one that ensures liberty, justice, dignity, and equality for all.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2023 as National Native American Heritage Month. I urge all Americans, as well as their elected representatives at the Federal, State, and local levels, to observe this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities. Also, I urge all Americans to celebrate November 24, 2023, as Native American Heritage Day.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-eighth.
JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.
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Lot of good information contained in this proclamation - a lot of progress "planned", in coordination with the Tribe's/Nation's leadership.
I urge all Americans to celebrate November 24, 2023, as Native American Heritage Day. -
and, no, that ain't Turkey Day.
But it is Black Friday - at least this year. I think if I were making a proclamation, that wouldn’t be my first choice if I wanted people to pay attention to Native American Heritage.
One of the most important things to me and many other Indians is the investigation into the ''Indian Boarding Schools'' currently being conducted.
I’m for it, but I’m curious about the dates. Why November and the 24th, specifically? Is there something special about the month or that day?
I looked it up and Bush the Elder signed the original law, so it’s old. Still wondering about the details, though.
What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S., has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose.
One of the very 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, 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. In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kans., formally approved a plan concerning American Indian Day. It directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call upon the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.
The year before this proclamation was issued, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day being proclaimed.
The first American Indian Day in a state 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, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919. Presently, several states have designated Columbus Day as Native American Day, 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, under variants on the name (including “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”) have been issued each year since 1994.
I "think" HW felt that, since Thanksgiving was in November, why not have the whole month as a historical marker for the Native Americans.
Best I can come up with.
I’m not sure how I feel about this approach. Setting a holiday to celebrate a whole culture or people on a date defined by something some other culture did that you don’t like seems unhealthy to me. I would try to pick a day that evokes a happy memory or derives from a tradition of the culture being celebrated.
To be sure, we have days of remembrance for bad memories, too. We observe Memorial Day, 9/11 and Pearl Harbor, but they are supposed to be solemn, not celebratory. We also remember people on the day they died or were martyred. But I don’t think I would want to celebrate a whole culture that way, if you see what I mean.
The way we learn about Thanksgiving, the holiday always made me think well of Native Americans. The Thanksgiving story makes them seem like the best of humans. So I like it, but I do wonder how most modern Native Americans feel about it.
IMO, and many other NAs the story of the First Thanksgiving is a myth and bears little resemblance to reality.
This explanation is at best ridiculous. I shouldn't have to explain why.
White people deciding when Native American Heritage Month/Day should be seems sketchy, not to mention colonial.