National Native American Heritage Month

National Native American Heritage Month (also known as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month) is celebrated annually throughout the month of November. What began as a mutually exclusive effort by different American Indigenous Peoples and groups across the United States to establish a Native American Day, became a resolution in 1990, when President George H. W. Bush approved November as National Native American Heritage Month. Today, this month is a time to celebrate the rich and diverse cultures, traditions, and histories that acknowledge the important contributions of America’s indigenous peoples. This month is also an opportunity to educate the general public about Indigenous cultures and geography, to raise awareness about the unique challenges Native Peoples have faced, both historically and in the present, and the ways Indigenous Peoples have worked to conquer these challenges. 

The exhibition for this month highlights the seven different tribes that once occupied the state of Missouri and the surrounding areas. Before the Indian Removal Act of the 1800s, Missouri was home to the Osage Nation, Otoe, Missouria, Illini, Ioway, Quapaw, and Chickasaw tribes. Learn more about each tribe by visiting the exhibition located outside of Mort's on the main floor of the MU Student Center.

The main floor of the MU Student Center

Norman Akers, Meeting in Missouri, Osage Mural, Cuba, MO

Indigenous Mural: Representing Native Lands in Missouri

Indigenous artist Yatika Starr Fields came to the Mizzou campus in Spring 2020 to create a mural for the MU Student Center. The mural showcases vibrant colors and sweeping lines akin to the likeness of traditional outfits worn in ceremonial dances by Indigenous Peoples. A large circle comprised of four colors, gold, black, white, and red is woven throughout the mural representing the Four Directions, a shared symbol throughout Native American tribes. It is also the name of the Mizzou campus organization representing indigenous peoples.

Painted in honor of Mizzou’s indigenous population and its student group Four Directions, this mural captures the kaleidoscopic colors and movement the artist remembers as a child witnessing Native American dance. The piece also features a gold circle representing the four directions, a metaphysical and elemental symbol in the culture. “Art for me is like tying my shoe,” said artist Yatika Starr Fields. “It is something that is effortless, but it is something that I’ve gotten to know over repetition.”

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples at Mizzou

Four Directions: Indigenous Peoples and Allies is a campus organization at MU that focuses on cultural education for and about Indigenous communities. They celebrate Native American and Indigenous students’/Peoples’ political, social, and cultural realities at MU and beyond. Four Directions advocates for Native students and aims to create partnerships among Native students, Native Scholars/Faculty, and Native Peoples in the surrounding community. They are open to all students of Native American, Pacific Islander, Alaskan Native, or other indigenous heritage as well as students who are interested in Indigenous issues.