History class visits Tennessee Pow Wow

For more than 40 years, the Native American Indian Association of Tennessee has hosted an educational Pow Wow and Fall Festival for residents to showcase the arts, crafts, dances, songs, storytelling, food, and clothing of Native Americans from across the country.

As the newest teacher in USN’s History Department, Ayesha Nawaz began the school year by speaking with students about what they wanted to learn more about, and Native American history was one of the first topics discussed.

“It was surprising to find that many students hadn’t interacted with Indigenous people before,” Nawaz reflected. “As a class, we can’t truly learn about U.S. history without knowing their stories.” 

Driven by the desire to fill this void, she reached out to leaders of the local Indigenous community, who graciously invited her class to the Pow Wow.

The main purpose of the visit was to provide students with a richer, more nuanced understanding of Indigenous history, culture, and contemporary life. “We wanted the students to see how Indigenous people celebrate and reclaim their heritage,” Nawaz explained. 

“My expectation for the Pow Wow was to gain a deeper understanding of contemporary Native American culture,” said Blaise Seale ‘26. “Our class has spent considerable time studying this topic, so it was incredibly enriching to experience it firsthand outside the classroom.”

As the class arrived at the Pow Wow, it was greeted by a kaleidoscope of colors, traditional regalia adorned with intricate beadwork and feathers, the rhythmic beat of drums echoing through the air, and a number of scents. It was a feast for the senses that brought life to the textbooks and lectures they have learned from throughout the school year.


“I think the biggest takeaway for the students was recognizing that Indigenous people are still here,” Nawaz noted. “They continue to exist despite enduring so many horrific atrocities.”

“A major thing I took away from the visit is just how much Indigenous people value and honor their culture,” Lila Hemphill, ‘26 said. “There is so much meaning behind the things they do and make, and it's amazing to see how they preserve these things that came from many generations before them and then share so much of it with Indigenous and non-Indigenous people today.”

The Pow Wow served as an entry point for further exploration into Native American culture. In the future, Nawaz said she plans to invite a local Indigenous speaker to the classroom, fostering deeper discussions and reflections on lived experience, identity, history, and community. Additionally, students will participate in a simulation exercise with fifth graders about how government policies and legislation have impacted various Indigenous people at given moments and places in US history.

“This trip opened up connections with Indigenous elders living in our community,” Nawaz remarked. “It’s essential that our students not only learn about Indigenous history as a part of US history but also engage with where we are today and how we may heal together.”

What started at the turn of the century as an effort to gain a day of recognition for the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the U.S. has resulted in a whole month being designated for that purpose.

One of the very proponents of an American Indian Day was Dr. Arthur C. Parker, a Seneca Indian, who was the director of the Museum of Arts and Science in Rochester, N.Y. He persuaded the Boy Scouts of America to set aside a day for the “First Americans,” and for three years, they adopted such a day. In 1915, the annual Congress of the American Indian Association meeting in Lawrence, Kans., formally approved a plan concerning American Indian Day. It directed its president, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapahoe, to call upon the country to observe such a day. Coolidge issued a proclamation on Sept. 28, 1915, which declared the second Saturday of each May as an American Indian Day and contained the first formal appeal for recognition of Indians as citizens.

The year before this proclamation was issued, Red Fox James, a Blackfoot Indian, rode horseback from state to state, seeking approval for a day to honor Indians. On December 14, 1915, he presented the endorsements of 24 state governments at the White House. There is no record, however, of such a national day being proclaimed.

The first American Indian Day in a state was declared on the second Saturday in May 1916 by the governor of New York. Several states celebrate the fourth Friday in September. In Illinois, for example, legislators enacted such a day in 1919. 

In 1990, President George H. W. Bush approved a joint resolution designating November 1990 “National American Indian Heritage Month.” Similar proclamations, under variants on the name (including “Native American Heritage Month” and “National American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month”) have been issued each year since 1994.