Native American Heritage Month celebrated in November
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – This month the nation is celebrating the culture and heritage of its native peoples.
On Oct. 30, President Donald Trump issued a proclamation designating November 2020 as National Native American Heritage Month – which also is referred to as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month – in the United States.
It’s a particularly important commemoration in Lake County, which is home to seven federally recognized tribes:
• Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians of the Big Valley Rancheria;
• Elem Indian Colony of Pomo Indians of the Sulphur Bank Rancheria;
• Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake;
• Koi Nation of Northern California;
• Middletown Rancheria of Pomo Indians of California;
• Robinson Rancheria; and
• Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians of California.
Lake County is notable for having two Native American members of its Board of Supervisors – Chair Moke Simon and Supervisor EJ Crandell.
It’s also the place where a landmark lawsuit that opened the door for Native Americans to vote began.
In 1917, the California Supreme Court ruled that Ethan Anderson was eligible to vote. A full story about the case can be read here.
California as a whole is home to 109 federally recognized tribes, according to the US Department of the Interior.
Alaska has the most federally tribes, 229, the Bureau of Indian Affairs reported.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey for 2019 found that California has 321,112 residents who identify their ethnicity as American Indian and Alaska Native alone, with 2,540 of those individuals living in Lake County.
The US Census Bureau reported that the first American Indian Day was celebrated in May 1916 in New York.
The event was the result of an effort by Rev. Red Fox James, also known as Red Fox Skiukusha, whose tribe has not been determined, rode 4,000 miles across the United States on horseback in order to seek approval from 24 state governments to have a day to honor American Indians, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or BIA, reported.
The BIA said Rev. James presented the endorsements of 24 governors to the White House on Dec. 14, 1915.
Four years later, he would petition the state of Washington to designate the fourth Saturday in September as an “Indian holiday,” the BIA said.
The same year that Rev. James made his ride across the United States, the Congress of the American Indian Association directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapaho minister “to call upon the nation to observe a day for American Indians,” and on Sept. 18, 1915, he issued a proclamation declaring the second Saturday of each May as “American Indian Day,” the BIA reported.
Rev. Coolidge also at that time sought U.S. citizenship for American Indians, a call Congress heard in 1924 when the BIA said it enacted the Indian Citizenship Act.
That act gave citizenship to all U.S.-born American Indians not already covered by treaty or other federal agreements that granted such status. The BIA said Alaska Natives were included in a later amendment to the act.
New York is believed to have designated the first American Indian Day in 1916, when it was commemorated in May, the BIA said.
In California, in 1968 Gov. Ronald Reagan signed a resolution designating the fourth Friday in September as American Indian Day, the BIA said.
Native American Day would become an official state holiday in California 30 years after Reagan’s action thanks to legislation enacted by the California State Assembly, the BIA said.
On the national level, federal observances began to take place after Congress in 1976 authorized President Gerald Ford to proclaim “Native American Awareness Week” in October.
The observances would become more formalized after George H.W. Bush signed a joint congressional resolution designating the month of November “National American Indian Heritage Month,” in 1990, the BIA said.
The following facts are courtesy of the U.S. Census Bureau.
Did You Know?
6.9 million
The nation's American Indian and Alaska Native population alone or in combination with other race groups in 2019.
10.1 million
The projected American Indian and Alaska Native population alone or in combination with other race groups on July 1, 2060. They would constitute 2.5 percent of the total population.
324
The number of distinct federally recognized American Indian reservations in 2019, including federal reservations and off-reservation trust land.
574
The number of federally recognized Indian tribes in the United States in 2020.
142,972
The number of single-race American Indian and Alaska Native veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces in 2019.
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