In celebration of National American Indian Heritage Month, which occurs each November, the installation hosted a National American Indian Heritage Month observance Friday at Fort Knox's Saber & Quill.
National American Indian Heritage Month honors the past and present contributions that Native American Soldiers, civilians and Family members have made. The nation recognizes that their heritage is part of the United States and Army values.
"It is a little known fact, but historically, (Native Americans) have the highest record of military service per capita when compared to other ethnic groups." said Col. Steve Aiton, the commander of Garrison Command. "I have served proudly with and beside some of the Native-American Indians in this category … in my eyes, have done their legacy a great justice in serving this nation.
"Currently, there are 557 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and more than 100 state-recognized tribes across the United States -- each with their own unique history, beliefs, governance structure and culture."
Tressa Brown, coordinator for the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission, was the event's keynote speaker. Brown discussed many of the stereotypes and myths about Native Americans and the need for society to make changes to eliminate stereotypes and offensive imagery. She also talked about the many Medal of Honor recipients.
"Native-American Indians were not even United States citizens and still fought with the military services, mostly the Army," Brown said.
The stereotypes seen today can be traced back to old writings and paintings of American Indians, the Plains Indian War of 1860-1890 and Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West shows, Brown said. The result is the image of all American Indians as horse-riding warriors dressed in beads and feathers. These warriors' traditional dress tells where the person comes from and their rank to only name a few.
Brown added that one of the things the American Indians did for the military was use their language to send secret messages that could not be deciphered by the enemy. Although some know about the Navaho Code Talkers, there were many other tribes that did it as well.
Fort Knox High School student Jordan Hightower sang the national anthem and attendees had an opportunity to view artifacts, books and posters. They also sampled traditional American-Indian food including succotash (sweet corn and lima beans), wojape (berry pudding), stew, fried bread, butternut squash and turkey.
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