Click the images below, or the following links, to expand the view or download a PDF: American Indian Heritage Month Timeline and American Indian Heritage Month Facts & Figures.

American Indian Heritage Month

1600s – 1700s

1614 Pocahontas marries English Jamestown colonist John Rolfe in Virginia, bringing temporary peace between English settlers and Algonquians
1758 First North American Indian reservation is established in New Jersey

1800s

1824 Bureau of Indian Affairs is established
1830 Indian Removal Act gives president the power to negotiate removal treaties for American Indians to move west of the Mississippi. About 4,000 Cherokee die as a result.
1834 Congress bans alcohol sales on American Indian lands
1851 Indian Appropriations Act of 1851 gathers American Indian tribes and places them on reservations
1871 Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 dissolves the status of Indian tribes as sovereign nations
1887 Congress passes Dawes Act, dividing reservation lands into privately owned parcels
1890 Roughly 300 Sioux are killed at Wounded Knee in last battle with federal forces

1900s

1912 Jim Thorpe, an athlete of the Sac and Fox tribe, wins two Olympic gold medals
1924 Indian Citizenship Act classifies American Indians as “citizens”
1929 Charles Curtis becomes the 31st vice president of the United States, the first person with significant acknowledged American Indian heritage to reach this level of the executive branch
1930 Apache Scout William Major becomes an officer of the 25th United States Infantry
1934 Congress passes Indian Reorganization Act to protect American Indians from loss of lands and provide funds for economic development. Also helps re-establish tribal governments
1963 Lyndon B. Johnson bestows the Presidential Medal of Freedom on its first American Indian recipient, Annie Dodge Wauneka of the Navajo Nation.
1968 Indian Civil Rights Act grants American Indians most protections under the Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment
1972 The American Indian Movement seizes the Bureau of Indian Affairs national headquarters and presents a 20-point list of demands
1973 American Indians occupy Wounded Knee in South Dakota
1978 American Indian Freedom of Religion Act allows “American Indian, Eskimo, Aleut and Native Hawaiian [people] … inherent right” to free exercise of their traditional religions
1980 Supreme Court orders U.S. government to pay $122 million to Sioux Indians for land illegally taken in South Dakota in 1877
1982 Supreme Court supports tax levied by the Jicarilla Apaches in New Mexico, allowing tribes to tax production of oil, natural gas and other minerals on reservations
1988 Congress passes Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, protecting American Indians’ gaming rights
1989 National Museum of the American Indian opens in Washington, D.C.
1990 First National American Indian Heritage month is celebrated (November)
1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act provides process for museums to return American Indian remains and artifacts to tribes upon request and protect their grave sites
1990 Native American Languages Act protects “the rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice and develop Native American languages”
1992 Foxwoods Casino opens on Pequot Reservation in Connecticut
1997 U.S. military allows American Indian soldiers to use peyote in their religious services

2000s

2000 The U.S. Mint issues a dollar coin with the image of Sacagawea, the Shosone woman famed for guiding the Lewis & Clark expedition through the western United States
2002 U.S. Navy Commander John Bennett Herrington, a Chickasaw citizen, visits the International Space Station, becoming the first American Indian astronaut in space
2005 National Collegiate Athletic Association bans use of “hostile and abusive” American Indian mascots in postseason tournaments
2009 Federal government settles dispute with American Indians, claiming they were swindled out of billions of dollars in oil, gas, grazing, timber and other royalties overseen by the U.S. Department of the Interior since 1887
2009 Congress passes and President Obama signs Native American Apology Resolution
2011 Judge clears New York state to tax cigarettes sold on American Indian reservations
2012 Senate approves the HEARTH Act that allows tribal governments to lease
tribal lands
Kevin Washburn of the Chickasaw nation is nominated by President Obama as the assistant secretary for Indian Affairs

The post American Indian Heritage Month Facts & Figures appeared first on DiversityInc.

Click the images below, or the following links, to expand the view or download a PDF: Disability Employment Awareness Month Timeline and Disability Employment Awareness Month Fact & Figures

National Disability Employment Awareness Month

1700s

1751 Pennsylvania Hospital, with help of Benjamin Franklin, creates nation’s first special section to treat mental illness and “mental retardation”

1773 Virginia establishes first hospital solely for treatment of “idiots, lunatics and other people of unsound mind”

1776 Stephen Hopkins, a man with cerebral palsy, signs the Declaration of Independence. He is known for saying “my hands may tremble, my heart does not”

1800s

1805 Dr. Benjamin Rush, considered the father of American psychiatry, publishes Medical Inquiries and Observations, the first modern
attempt to explain mental disorders

1817 First school for deaf in U.S. opens in Connecticut

1829 Louis Braille publishes raised-point alphabet

1907 Indiana becomes the first state to enact a law to sterilize “confirmed idiots, imbeciles and rapists” in state institutions. The law is
enacted in 24 other states

1900s

1918 Congress passes first major rehabilitation program for soldiers because of the large number of World War I veterans returning with
disabilities

1921 The American Foundation for the Blind is founded

1924 Virginia passes law allowing sterilization (without consent) of individuals found to be “feebleminded, insane, depressed, mentally handicapped, epileptic and other”

1927 U.S. Supreme Court rules forced sterilization of people with disabilities is not a violation of constitutional rights

1935 Social Security Act establishes federal benefits for elderly people, funds to states for assistance to blind individuals and children with
disabilities

1939 Nazi euthanasia program is instituted to eliminate “life unworthy of life.” Up to 250,000 people with developmental or physical disabilities are killed

1945 National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week is created

1950 Veterans and people with disabilities begin development of national standards for “barrier-free” buildings

1956 Social Security amendments create disability insurance for workers with disabilities 50–64 1958 Social Security amendments extend disability benefits to dependents of workers with disabilities

1960 Rome hosts first Paralympics Games

1961 Making Buildings Accessible to and Usable by the Physically Handicapped is published. Forty-nine states adapt accessibility
legislation by 1973

1962 Ed Roberts, a young man with polio, fights rejection from the University of California, Berkeley and later helps establish the first Center for Independent Living

1964 The Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity or national origin, laying foundation for disability rights movement

1965 Medicare and Medicaid are established under Social Security Amendments

1970 Judy Heumann sues New York City Board of Education after application for a teaching license is denied because her wheelchair
is “a fire hazard”

1973 Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination in federal programs and services receiving federal funds

1974 The last “Ugly Law” is repealed in Chicago. They had allowed police to arrest people with “apparent” disabilities for no reason

1975 The Education of All Handicapped Children Act requires free public education in least-restrictive setting for children with disabilities

1976 Amendment to Higher Education Act of 1972 mandates services for college students with physical disabilities

1978 Frank Bowe publishes “Handicapping America,” considered the text for the disability-rights movement

1980 Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act gives the Department of Justice power to sue state or local institutions that violate
the rights of people held against their will

1984 Voting Accessibility for Elderly and Handicapped Act makes polling places accessible to people with disabilities

1990 President George Bush signs Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), requiring fair employment practices and protection from discrimination in employment, transportation, telecommunications, public accommodations and state and federal services

1992 United Nations creates International Day of Disabled Persons

2000s

2004 Army commissioned officer Tammy Duckworth loses lower legs after helicopter is hit by grenade, the first female double amputee from Iraq war. Receives Purple Heart and promotion to major in December; becomes disability activist 2006 First bill is passed that requires history of disability rights be taught to K–12 public-school students 2008 ADA Amendments Act grants broader protections for workers with disabilities

2009 Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act protects employees/job applicants from genetic information discrimination

2010 President Barack Obama signs executive order calling for an additional 100,000 individuals with disabilities to be employed
by federal government over five years, and to increase retention of employees with disabilities, including employees injured on
the job

2011 New ADA rules come into effect for expanded accessibility requirements in recreational facilities and standards for mobility devices in public spaces, as well as clearly defined “service animal”

Sources: DiversityInc, disabilityhistoryweek.org, Temple University, whitehouse.gov, National Consortium on Leadership and Disability for Youth (NCLD/Y), Ability Magazine

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