Every November, Trexler Library celebrates the traditions, contributions, culture, and history of the indigenous people of the United States, such as American Indians, Alaskan Natives, Native Hawaiian, and Island communities. There are currently 574 federally recognized tribal nations in the United States, as well as an additional 66 nations recognized by states.
In the early 20th century, individuals from different tribes around the US banded together to designate a day to celebrating the First Americans. In 1915, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapaho Indian and president of the Congress of the American Indian Association, issued a proclamation for American Indian Day to be celebrated in May as well as a formal appeal for Indians to be recognized as citizens of the United States. American Indians would be celebrated on different days by several states. It wasn’t until 1990, when President George H.W. Bush declared November as Native American Heritage Month. Some states also celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day second Monday of October, formerly known as Columbus Day.
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DeSales University sits on the traditional homeland of the Lenape, also known as the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape, or the Delaware. The matrilineal society originally spread throughout modern day Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. During the 18th century, the Lenape were pushed out of this homeland by expanding European colonization and by the 1860s the remaining Lenape were forcibly removed to Oklahoma under the United States Indian removal policy (Library of Congress Indian Removal Act Guide).
Lenape people are a part of three federally recognized tribes (Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, and Stockbridge-Munsee Community) and three First Nations communities in Canada (Munsee-Delaware Nation, Moravian of the Thames First Nation, and Delaware of Six Nations). There are a number of state and local groups of Lenape, including the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania and the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape of New Jersey.
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