Native American Heritage Month was established in 1990 under President George H.W. Bush as a month set aside to commemorate and honor all Native American cultures. Today, there are 574 federally recognized tribes within the United States. Arkansas was once home to the Osage, Caddo, and Quapaw people that were removed through federal Indian policy in the 1820s and 1830s.
Mary and Hultman Jacobs, the great-grandparents of Erin Fehr
I am proud to represent my Yup’ik and Inupiaq culture here in Arkansas, thousands of miles away from my family’s homelands of southwestern Alaska. My maternal grandmother was born in Hooper Bay, Alaska, and my dad was born in Anchorage, Alaska, to a Yup’ik and Inupiaq mother and white father from Watson, Arkansas.
This year, I remember and honor the volunteerism displayed by my great-grandfather Hultman Edwin Jacobs (Inupiaq) when he joined the Alaska Territorial Guard in Hooper Bay, Alaska. He was one of more than 6,400 Alaska Natives that stepped up to defend the United States against a potential foreign invasion during World War II. It wasn’t until 2000 that these men were granted veteran status and honored for their contributions.
I continue to recognize and honor the service of American Indians and Alaska Natives through my work on the Sequoyah National Research Center’s project, Modern Warriors of World War I, and our research assistance to the World War One Valor Medals Review. Native men and women have served in every major conflict since the Revolutionary War and continue to serve at higher rates than any other race or ethnicity. Our work gives voice to the stories that have long been forgotten by the American public and draws families together to remember their loved ones and their service.
I invite you to learn more about the continued contributions of today’s American Indians and Alaska Natives during Native American Heritage Month. Visit the Sequoyah National Research Center in Fine Arts 156 to see our display of Native art; attend the reading of Diane Glancy’s play “William Tincup’s Squaw” on Friday, November 8; or visit Coleman Creek Trail of Tears Park right here on campus that commemorates the location of an encampment of Choctaws and Chickasaws on their journey to Indian Territory in the 1830s.
Ukanirpak maantukut. We have been here since time immemorial.
Written By Erin Fehr, Assistant Director of Sequoyah National Research Center and Archivist