November is Native American Heritage Month

From the series, "Indian Photographing Tourist Photographing Indian," Zig Jackson

November is Native American Heritage Month. The Library of Congress (in concert with the National Archives, the NEH, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, and other partners) has a comprehensive website devoted to the observance. Here is the main link, Native American Heritage Month 2011, with links to a number of other sites, as well as to historic newspapers,documents, and other ephemera.

Indian Chieftain, September 29, 1882

One of the newspapers, The Indian Chieftain, published in Vinita, Indian Territory (which later became the state of Oklahoma) was in circulation from 1882-1902 (for some of those years as a daily), billing itself as "Devoted to the interests of the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Seminoles, Creeks, and all other Indians of the Indian Territory." The other paper, The Indian Advocate, published by the Benedictine Fathers of Sacred Heart Mission in Oklahoma from ca. early 1890s through 1910, was a Catholic missionary paper. Editions of the papers are available for viewing online through links on the main site.

I encourage you to visit the site/s and to think about Native American history, art, culture, politics, and economic and social progress.

All best,

Rebecca