Recognizing Native Americans
An early day of remembrance amid a long history of ignorance
Welcome back to the This Day newsletter. Each week, a member of our team gathers together bits of America’s past and attempts to find a throughline that might add a little understanding to our current moment.
Here’s what happened over the week ahead in American political history…
May 8
1541: Spanish Conquistador Hernando De Soto reaches the Mississippi, one of the first European explorers to ever do so
1945: Victory in Europe (V-E Day): Germany unconditionally surrenders
1970: President Richard Nixon defends the invasion of Cambodia in a news conference
1980: The World Health Organization announces smallpox has been eradicated
May 9
1860: The Constitutional Union Party has its first and only convention.
1877: Lakota leader Sitting Bull leads a large group into Canada to seek refuge from the U.S. Army, which had been pursuing him after he defeated the U.S. in the Battle of Little Big Horn
1960: The FDA approves "the pill," the first country to legalize it
1974: The US House votes to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon
2012: President Barack Obama gives an interview in which he expresses his support for gay marriage, a stance that he’d been reluctant to take up until that point. His hand was forced, in part, because a few days earlier Vice President Joe Biden had said he supported gay marriage in another interview — which was largely seen as a “gaffe” on Biden’s part.
May 10
1775: Americans capture Fort Ticonderoga, the first offensive victory for American forces in the Revolutionary War
1837: A Major banking crisis and economic depression comes to a head on when banks in New York City run out of gold and silver
1865: Confederate President Jefferson Davis is captured by Union soldiers near Irwinville, Georgia
2000: A monstrous wildfire, which began as a prescribed burn ignited by federal crews but raged out of control, spread to Los Alamos National Laboratory’s forested lands, burning dozens of structures and threatening a facility that housed radioactive material
May 11
1846: President James K. Polk asks for a Declaration of War against Mexico.
1858: Minnesota is admitted as the 32nd US state
1880: Seven people are killed in the Mussel Slough Tragedy, a dispute over land titles between settlers and the Southern Pacific Railroad
1934: A massive storm sends millions of tons of topsoil flying across the Great Plains region of the United States
1963: A series of bombs explode in Birmingham, Alabama — one at the hotel in which Martin Luther King, Jr. was staying, and one at his brother’s house
May 12
1879: Chief Standing Bear wins a lawsuit against the US government, with a US district judge in Omaha, Nebraska ruling that an Indian is a person in the eyes of the law
1898: Louisiana adopts a new constitution with a "grandfather clause” enabling many illiterate and poor white men to get around the literacy and property requirements to vote
2003: 50 Texas legislators flee across the border to Oklahoma to avoid having to vote on a redistricting proposal
May 13
1916: New York recognizes the first observance of Native American Day
1958: Vice President Richard Nixon’s car is attacked by an angry crowd in Caracas, Venezuela
1985: The Philadelphia police department ends a standoff with the MOVE group by dropping two firebombs from a helicopter on a rowhouse, which eventually led to an entire city block burning to the ground and 11 people being killed
May 14
1787: Delegates gather in Philadelphia for a convention to draw up the U.S. Constitution
1789: Congress creates the title of "President"
1796: Edward Jenner administers the world's first vaccination for smallpox to 8-year-old James Phipps
1804: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark leave St. Louis to explore the Northwest for a connection between the Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean
1963: In New York City, a group of civil rights leaders meets with Attorney General Robert F Kennedy to talk about the incidents in Birmingham and the state of the movement. The meeting is contentious, but it pushes RFK to ultimately support significant legislation
In which we take the above collection of events and find themes, throughlines, rabbit holes and more. This week, Kellie Carter Jackson looks back.
This week on connecting the dots I want to focus on Native American history and the major contributions of the many indigenous tribes who called America home long before any Europeans or Africans arrived. School children are taught about the famous expedition of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend and Second Lieutenant William Clark who explored the Northwest from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. But none of this would have been possible without the aid of Native people. Lewis and Clark could not have survived the harsh winters, limited food supply, or navigation without dozens of Native tribes such as the Lakota, the Mandan, Chinooks, and the most famous emissary, Sacagawea of the Lemhi Shoshone people. To this day, Sacagawea represents the invaluable contribution of women’s leadership and knowledge. Nevertheless, it would take another 75 years for the US government to recognize a Native American as a person in the eyes of the Law.
In 1879, Chief Standing Bear of the Ponca nation won a lawsuit against the US government, with a US district judge in Omaha, Nebraska ruling that an Indian is a person in the eyes of the law. Chief Standing Bear dedicated his life to advocating for Indian rights. This fight endures. In 1916, New York state was the first to celebrate observance of Indian (Native American) Day on the second Saturday of May. While Native American Heritage Day varies from state to state, many towns, cities, and states have transformed Columbus Day into Indigenous People’s Day. While there are countless Native heroes and heroines to celebrate, I am often thinking about the Lakota leader Sitting Bull who led a large group of his people into Canada to seek refuge from the U.S. Army. Sitting Bull famously defeated the U.S. in the Battle of Little Bighorn. Native Americans, are just that, native Americans. But belonging in a country which they originally inhabited has been structurally violent, fraught, hostile, and exploitative. We can never forget that. As we continue to ponder the 250th anniversary of America, I think of all the ways marginalized groups have built this country and how this country legally denied them basic humanity before the law. We cannot deny that ours is a nation in which Native Americans have consistently and continually fought for agency, sovereignty, belonging, and God-given rights. This week we celebrate, but the work of justice in America as is ongoing.
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