November Is Native American Heritage Month

President George H. W. Bush signed a joint resolution designating November 1990 as Native American Heritage Month, according to the Native American Heritage website. Though several states have designated days in in honor of Native Americans dating back to 1915, it was not until the resolution of 1990 that November became a month to honor the indigenous people of the nation.

Karenne Wood, the director of the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities based in Charlottesville, offered a revised version of American history. As both a local resident and a member of the  Monacan Indian Nation, Wood spoke recently about Native American Heritage Month and the popular myths regarding the settling of both Virginia and America. Though busy preparing for one of her speaking engagements for November, Wood discussed both the topic of one of her events and some of the actual history involving Native Americans and their heritage as opposed to American history.

“I’m speaking on Pocahontas and Mary Jemison,” Wood said, explaining that both women had similar stories but only one of them made the history books. According to Wood, European settlers kidnapped Pocahontas as a young girl. Though many textbooks state that Pocahontas chose to remain with the English and convert to Christianity, Wood’s version depicted Pocahontas as a captive. The English forced both Christianity and her marriage to John Rolfe upon her. Pocahontas travelled to England and died at the age of 22.

Wood went on to tell the story of Mary Jemison, a child of Irish immigrants. The French and the Shawnee took her captive. Her captors then sold her to the Seneca tribe where she lived out her days. Wood points out that Jemison wound up with little place in history.

Wood discussed more of the popular myths surrounding the settling of America. “It’s ridiculous this idea that we were founded based on democracy and religious freedom when there’s this whole genocide at the root of our history,” she said.