BY JORDAN ROSALYN HENDERSON
PALS Community
Development Associate
November: a month that allows us to watch the world transform with the seasons, and a time to begin reflecting on the year that is coming to a close. For most families, November means preparing for Thanksgiving, a holiday spent celebrating family, thankfulness, and good food. To our Native American community members, November holds a much greater significance: November is National Native American Heritage Month!
Native American Heritage Month began in 1986 when President Ronald Reagan signed a resolution to mark the week of November 23-30 as “American Indian Week”. It wasn’t until 1990 that President George H.W. Bush would pass a bill declaring that the entire month of November would be National American Indian Heritage Month, which we now know as Native American Heritage Month. Later, in 2008, President George W. Bush established the Friday after Thanksgiving as Native American Heritage Day.
“November is an important reminder to celebrate the cultures, heritage, and meaningful contributions of our Native American community members.”
PALS is committed to celebrating diversity and promoting inclusion. To do that effectively, we must recognize and appreciate the value of every person that has contributed to building this country. Our history books often emphasize the roles of the Pilgrims and our Founding Fathers, but the role of Native Americans in our history is often overlooked. November is an important reminder to celebrate the cultures, heritage, and meaningful contributions of our Native American community members.
Many people don’t realize that Native Americans have contributed to nearly every facet of our society – from agriculture to medicine, they have been critical to our development as a nation. Their communities were instrumental in growing and harvesting edible plants like corn, potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes and many more fruits and vegetables that we continue to enjoy today. Native Americans also cultivated other plants for their use in health and medicine. The bark of the willow tree, for example, was used as an early version of aspirin.
While COVID restrictions make it harder to do things like visit a museum or attend an event to celebrate Native American Heritage Month, you can still celebrate from home! Embrace the power of the internet to find Native American owned businesses or charities to support, share a story with a PALS friend by a Native American author, or even stream a documentary on PBS!
There are many ways to celebrate the culture of Native Americans while staying safe during Native American Heritage Month. As you share with your family from a distance this holiday, we hope that you will continue to support PALS in our mission to create a world of belonging!