11.25.22 – APFA Celebrates Native American Heritage Month

Friday, November 25, 2022

APFA Celebrates Native American Heritage Month

November is Native American Heritage Month. In recognition of the significant contributions made by Native Americans and their part in the growth of this country, we celebrate those Native Americans who choose to serve as representatives in our United States government.

Dating back to the late 1700s, Native Americans have served in our government, and present-day Native Americans have made history in important capacities.

First row: Markwayne Mullin, Deb Haaland
Second row: Tom Cole, Sharice Davids, Mary Peltola
Third row: Peggy Flanagan, Joy Harjo

Markwayne Mullin, of the Cherokee Nation and Oklahoma U.S. Senator, is the first Native American to serve in the U.S. Senate in 32 years.

Deb Haaland was the first Native American to serve as Secretary of The Interior and one of the first two Native American Women to serve in U.S. Congress. Before becoming Secretary to Interior, she served as New Mexico’s House of Representatives for Congressional District 1.

Tom Cole of the Chickasaw Nation is the longest-serving Native American in the House.

Sharice Davids (Ho-Chunk) represents Kansas in the U.S. House, the second Native American woman to be elected to Congress, and the first openly LGBTQ Native American member of Congress.

Mary Peltola, who is Yupik, is the first woman and the first Alaska Native to serve in Congress in Alaska.

Lt. Governor Peggy Flanagan of Minnesota is Chippewa and the second Native American woman in U.S. history to be elected to a state executive office.

Joy Harjo was the 23rd Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress and the first Native American to be appointed to this position. She is a member of the Muskogee Creek Nation.

Native Americans have always had a strong role and continue to be valuable contributors in the representation of the people of our nation. Along with their male counterparts, women hold significant roles in decisions that are made. The Wolf Clan (family lineage is passed from the maternal side) is an example of power shared, and they were an inspiration in the suffrage movement. The Haudenosaunee Confederacy, known as the Great Law of Peace, of the Iroquois-speaking tribes of the Cayuga’s, Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Senecas was created by Iroquois leaders Deganawidah (Great Peacemaker), Hiawatha (leader of the Mohawk, Onondaga people), and Jikonhsaseh (Iroquois woman known as the Mother of Nations). It was the center of their governing body for almost 200 years.

Native Americans have had considerable influence in the progression of women’s rights and the rights of all, believing that we are stronger with leadership shared by all genders, and sexes and respect for heritage and identity, empowering us through the unionism of us all.

In Solidarity,

Chaddrian Calhoun and Rhonda Curtright
APFA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee
[email protected]