National Native American Heritage Month

In the spring of 1914, the Reverend Red Fox James, whose tribal identity the Bureau of Indian Affairs records as undetermined, began a roughly 4,000-mile trek on horseback to Washington to petition the President for an "Indian Day." The standard account holds that on December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 governors at the White House.

That same year, the Reverend Sherman Coolidge, an Arapaho leader, issued a proclamation declaring the second Saturday of each May "American Indian Day." His appeal also called for the citizenship of American Indians, a claim that would not be answered until 1924.

The breakthrough came in 1990. On August 3, President George H. W. Bush signed House Joint Resolution 577, Public Law 101-343, designating that November as National American Indian Heritage Month. He followed it with Presidential Proclamation 6230 in November.

A single month, though, was still only a single month. In 1991, Public Law 102-123 authorized the observance for November 1991 "and the month of each November thereafter," turning a one-time designation into a recurring one. The commemorative language was later amended in 2008 to include Alaska Natives, and the name in common federal use shifted toward National Native American Heritage Month. ]]>