Many people have tried throughout the years to designate a period of time for the recognition of Native Americans and their contributions to the world. Hailing from the Seneca Nation, Dr. Arthur C. Parker convinced the Boy Scouts of America to do just that. For three years, they celebrated a “First Americans” day, up until 1915, when the yearly Congress of the American Indian Association (CAIA) agreed to raise the subject of celebration up to the national level. Red Fox James, a member of the Blackfoot Nation, had also been advancing these proposals. He spent 1914 traveling through every U.S. state on horseback, asking their legislatures to advocate for a Native American heritage-honoring holiday. With the backing of twenty-four state governments, James petitioned the White House on December 14, 1915 to no avail. Earlier in the year on September 28th, President Calvin Coolidge appealed for the acknowledgement of Native Americans’ contributions to the nation through the recognition of the second Saturday of each May as the new Native American Heritage day. Though they were not officially recognized at the federal level, individual states implemented public holidays to honor Native Americans, with New York being the first in May of 1916. A few other states, including Illinois in 1919, would come to celebrate Native American heritage on the fourth Friday of September, while others celebrated it on the second Monday of October—the same as Columbus Day. More recently, in 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed a joint resolution concerning the recognition of the entire month of November as Native American Heritage Month, so it would only be fitting for a nationally recognized day of the same purposes to be held within the month. In 2009, President Barack Obama signed a resolution for National Native American Heritage Day to be observed the Friday after Thanksgiving. Both National Native American Heritage Month and Day are still celebrated across the nation, encouraging non-Native Americans to learn more about Indigenous cultures and stories and allowing Indigenous people to feel appreciated in their heritage.
In honor of Native Americans and their cultures, Orange Lutheran’s very own Rooted program organized a celebratory Daily Gathering on November 2nd. They invited two members of the Pechanga Tribal Council to share their experiences as well as an informative music video filmed on their Temecula reservation. Their aim in sharing their culture is to spread accurate knowledge about Native Americans, allowing others to familiarize themselves with, and honor, Indigenous heritage. Another leader of the Daily Gathering, Sage Romero, is part of both the Taos Pueblo and Big Pine Paiute tribes. Having a decade-long partnership with the OLu Missions program, Romero has worked with them on their Native American Reservation Trips (NART) to improve his dance studio, which in turn helps Romero’s community thrive. Romero graciously traveled the long way from Big Pine, California to share his culture in the form of dance. After performing an intricate, symbolic, and especially beautiful hoop dance, Romero taught everybody a participatory dance and invited us to gather in the center of the gym, join hands, and conduct it together. The ability to physically engage in a Daily Gathering proved enticing for many, as students continued to flock towards the circle throughout the song. This physical representation of cultural unity serves as a reminder to honor Native American people, cultures, languages, traditions, and ways of life—not only during the month of November.
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Photo Credit: Chris Cornish