National American Indian Heritage Month, as defined by the Law Library of Congress, "celebrates and recognizes the accomplishments of the peoples who were the original inhabitants, explorers and settlers of the United States." For legislation, Presidential Proclamations, and Executive Orders pertaining to this commemoration, visit the Law Library of Congress' National American Indian Heritage Month page.
Online Resources
National Museum of the American Indian
Indigenous Law Library Archive "a collection of constitutions, codes, executive orders, and court forms and information of sovereign Indigenous governments and courts of 578 federally recognized nations, communities, and tribes in the United States, as well as some Indigenous legal information from Canada, published online" by the Law Library of Congress
Association on American Indian Affairs "the oldest non-profit serving Indian Country protecting sovereignty, preserving culture, educating youth and building capacity."
American Indian Heritage Foundation "The American Indian Heritage Foundation was established in 1973 to provide relief services to Indian people nationwide, to build bridges of understanding and friendship between Indian and non-Indian people."
National American Indian Heritage Month official site
National Archives' Native American Heritage Month site
Stories about Native Americans Articles, videos, and podcasts from NPR
Trail of Tears downloaded from PBS LearningMedia, https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/akh10.socst.ush.exp.trail/trail-of-tears/. Rights to use this asset do not expire. Asset Copyright: © 2009 WGBH Educational Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Adapted from American Experience: "We Shall Remain: Trail of Tears". Third party materials courtesy of Aperture Media Group, Corbis, National Anthropological Archives of the Smithsonian Institutions, Library of Congress, and University of Tennessee Libraries.
In this video segment adapted from American Experience: "We Shall Remain," reenactments help tell the story of how the Cherokee people were forced from their lands in the southeast. The U.S. government initially promised the Cherokee and other Native American tribes that if they could assimilate into European Americans lifestyles, they would be considered equals. But a new movement in the late 1820s, supported by President Andrew Jackson, promoted removal of Native Americans from the eastern U.S. The Indian Removal Act, passed in 1830, called for the tribes to leave peacefully. Feeling that removal from their own lands was not an option, the vast majority of people stayed. When the deadline to leave passed, federal troops and state militia forcefully assembled the Cherokee people, letting them take nothing but the clothes on their backs, and made them march an 850-mile trek to new lands. Many died on this march, known as the Trail of Tears, which lasted through one of the hardest winters the region had ever experienced.
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