Some of the new inductees into the National Native American Hall of Fame this year include entrepreneur Dave Anderson (Chippewa), former U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell (Northern Cheyenne) and Emil Notti (Athabascan) the first president of the Alaska Federation of Natives.
The award is an opportunity to educate the general public about notable Native Americans and their contributions.
The National Native American Hall of Fame is honoring its third wave of inductees at a ceremony on November 6, 2021. #NativeHallOfFamehttps://t.co/3Oqn3gTRPs indianz.com (@indianz) May 7, 2021
Native America Calling will talk with the Hall of Fame founders about the importance of the award and what it takes to to make the list.
“I never allow a lack of knowledge on a particular subject matter to hold me back from doing something,” said James Parker Shield, Little Shell Chippewa, when talking about the National Native American Hall of Fame. “About ten years ago I thought: there is a Hall of Fame for just about everything else, why not Indians?” asked Parker Shield. “Then, I didn’t know much about museums and such, but I saw the need.” Since then, with the help and support of many tribal leaders stretching from Florida to Alaska and resolutions of support provided by the National Indian Education Association, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (tribal colleges) and others, that dream was realized in 2018 when the National Native Hall of Fame (NNAHF), a 501(c)3 organization inducted its first honorees.
Ada Deer
CSSW connection: Ada Deer received her MSW from our School in 1961, the first Native American to do so. In 1998, in recognition of her contributions to Native American advocacy and scholarship, she was inducted into our School’s Alumni Hall of Fame; and her name is on the board of donors that graces our building’s lobby.
Path to political involvement: After earning her BSW and MSW degrees and serving as a school social worker in New York and Milwaukee, Deer, a member of the Menominee Tribe in Wisconsin, entered politics at the grassroots level, becoming the spokesperson for her tribe when their federal recognition was in danger of being “terminated.” Termination of Indian tribes meant that all members would be required to live as ordinary American citizens, and the tribe would lose its right to self-government, various federal supports and protections, and most crucially, members’ rights to their land. Deer went to Washington, DC, as Menominee Tribe’s represent