Native American Heritage Month 2026

About Native American Heritage Month

Each November, tribal nations, museums, schools and federal agencies highlight Native history and present-day life, from art, music and food traditions to treaty rights, sovereignty and language revitalization. The Library of Congress runs the federal heritage-month website with partner institutions, gathering exhibits, archival collections and teaching materials.

The push for recognition is more than a century old. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca scholar who directed the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, New York, persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the First Americans, which they kept for three years. In 1915 the American Indian Association, meeting in Lawrence, Kansas, approved a plan for an American Indian Day, and its president, the Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapaho, issued a proclamation on September 28, 1915, naming the second Saturday of May. That same year Red Fox James, a Blackfoot man, rode horseback from state to state seeking support and presented endorsements from 24 state governments at the White House on December 14, 1915. New York declared the first state American Indian Day in May 1916.

National recognition came in 1990, when President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution, Public Law 101-343, designating November 1990 as National American Indian Heritage Month. Similar proclamations have been issued every year since 1994 under several names, including National Native American Heritage Month. In 2009 Congress also designated the Friday after Thanksgiving as Native American Heritage Day.

Sources: Native American Heritage Month (Library of Congress and partner institutions): About, Bureau of Indian Affairs: National Native American Heritage Month, Congress.gov: Public Law 101-343 (1990), American Presidency Project: Proclamation 6230, National American Indian Heritage Month, 1990. How we check dates.

How to mark Native American Heritage Month

• Find out whose traditional homelands you live on, then learn about that nation's history from its own website or cultural center.
• Visit a tribal museum or cultural center, or the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, or New York City.
• Read books by Native authors or watch films and documentaries made by Native directors.
• Buy art, jewelry or food directly from Native artists and producers; the federal Indian Arts and Crafts Act makes it illegal to falsely market products as Indian-made.
• Attend a public powwow or cultural event, following the host community's guidance on photos and etiquette.

Native American Heritage Month dates