November is National Native American Heritage Month. It has been celebrated by Presidential Proclamation for 30+ years and should have been for many more years. This year’s proclamation by President Biden lays out the many reasons this is so necessary. Not everyone is aware of the importance, and our schools generally fail in educating students […]
How many states recognize Indigenous Peoples Day in the United States each October? I had that question this early morning. According to an October 2022 article in the AzMirror, the states that observe the holiday or a similar recognition are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, North […]
Over the past 25 years, I have worked extensively with Native American Tribes, law firms, and individuals in the area of Native American research in the United States. Among the various titles and positions I have held as an independent contractor are consultant to an enrollment committee, Enrollment Committee Chair, creator of enrollment documents, creator […]
Minnesota Public Radio posted today “The U.S. Department of the Interior and the Minnesota-based Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition have signed an agreement to collaborate in the search for records of Indian boarding schools.” The article next states an online archive of the records will be started late in 2022. Apparently the Coalition had […]
Native American genealogical research, consulting, and presentations on the topic are a major interest and part of my business. For some of my Native American individual, tribal, and law firm clients, I have spent time investigating records related to Indian boarding schools. This involved the reading of letters from parents to the school begging for […]
Discussing Native Americans and U.S. military service was not my original plan for Part 2. November 11 was Veterans Day and that changed my focus and thinking. I have spent many hours at the U.S. National Archives delving into military service, pension, and Indian Scout files for Native Americans. The family details in these records […]
Any month is important when learning more about personal Native American heritage. November is Native American Heritage Month. The National Congress of American Indians states it’s more commonly “referred to as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.” The White House issued a proclamation about it, as have some states, like my own state of […]
Today is National Day of Remembrance for U.S. Indian Boarding Schools. It’s a day to remember the mostly tragic things that happened to children torn from their families. I have read through textual records at several locations of the U.S. National Archives (NARA) that relate to boarding schools, page by page, folder by folder. I […]
My first blog post was on 2 June 2007. My life has been blessed with many freedoms and passions. Today I choose not to recap past blog posts, but to talk about something that still blows my mind. As many of you know, I have been involved in deep research in original records related to […]
Opinions ahead. Some of you may know that I am involved with Native American historical and genealogical research and related work. I have been working with Tribes and law firms since the early 1990s. I have read thousands of pages of documents in the National Archives, historical societies, other archives, and online that have made […]