Pine Tree Legal Assistance acknowledges and celebrates November as Native American Heritage Month. The work of our Indigenous Peoples Unit is fundamental to our work as a program. The following excerpt from the White House Proclamation speaks to the importance of honoring Native American Heritage Month.
“During National Native American Heritage Month, we celebrate Indigenous peoples past and present and rededicate ourselves to honoring Tribal sovereignty, promoting Tribal self-determination, and upholding the United States’ solemn trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations.
America has not always delivered on its promise of equal dignity and respect for Native Americans. For centuries, broken treaties, dispossession of ancestral lands, and policies of assimilation and termination sought to decimate Native populations and their ways of life. But despite this painful history, Indigenous peoples, their governments, and their communities have persevered and flourished. As teachers and scholars, scientists and doctors, writers and artists, business leaders and elected officials, heroes in uniform, and so much more, they have made immeasurable contributions to our country’s progress.”
Read the full White House Proclamation on National Native American Heritage Month 2022 here.