[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 212 (Thursday, November 3, 2022)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 66531-66532]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-24170]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 87, No. 212 / Thursday, November 3, 2022 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 66531]]


                Proclamation 10490 of October 31, 2022

                
National Native American Heritage Month, 2022

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                During National Native American Heritage Month, we 
                celebrate Indigenous peoples past and present and 
                rededicate ourselves to honoring Tribal sovereignty, 
                promoting Tribal self-determination, and upholding the 
                United States' solemn trust and treaty responsibilities 
                to Tribal Nations.

                America has not always delivered on its promise of 
                equal dignity and respect for Native Americans. For 
                centuries, broken treaties, dispossession of ancestral 
                lands, and policies of assimilation and termination 
                sought to decimate Native populations and their ways of 
                life. But despite this painful history, Indigenous 
                peoples, their governments, and their communities have 
                persevered and flourished. As teachers and scholars, 
                scientists and doctors, writers and artists, business 
                leaders and elected officials, heroes in uniform, and 
                so much more, they have made immeasurable contributions 
                to our country's progress.

                We must do more to ensure that Native Americans have 
                every opportunity to succeed and that their expertise 
                informs our Federal policy-making. That is why my 
                Administration is engaging in meaningful consultation 
                with Tribal leaders, particularly when it comes to 
                treaty rights, reserved rights, management and 
                stewardship of Federal lands, consideration of 
                Indigenous Knowledge, and other policies that affect 
                Native peoples. That is also why I appointed Secretary 
                Deb Haaland to be the first-ever Native American 
                Cabinet Secretary, and why more than 50 Native 
                Americans now serve in significant roles across the 
                executive branch.

                Meanwhile, we are creating new jobs in Native American 
                communities and bolstering infrastructure in Tribal 
                areas. My Administration's American Rescue plan made 
                the largest-ever investment in Indian Country to help 
                Tribal Nations combat the COVID-19 pandemic and to 
                support Tribal economic recovery. My Administration's 
                Bipartisan Infrastructure Law secured more than $13 
                billion exclusively for Native communities to deliver 
                high-speed internet to Tribal lands, build safer roads 
                and bridges, modernize sanitation systems, and provide 
                clean drinking water--all while putting people to work. 
                Through the Inflation Reduction Act, we are lowering 
                the price of health care coverage and capping drug 
                costs for Indigenous families. We are empowering Tribes 
                to fight drought, improve fisheries, and transition to 
                clean energy as part of the most significant climate 
                investment this Nation has ever made. Those investments 
                include climate adaptation planning and community-led 
                relocation efforts, funding a Tribal Electrification 
                Program to provide power to unelectrified homes, making 
                Environmental Justice Block Grants available to help 
                alleviate legacy pollution, bolstering conservation 
                programs across the country, and restoring protections 
                for treasured lands that Indigenous peoples have 
                tirelessly stewarded, such as Bears Ears and the Grand 
                Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

                We are also helping Native communities heal from 
                intergenerational trauma caused by past policies. Last 
                year, the Department of the Interior launched the 
                Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to shed light 
                on the harmful history of forced cultural assimilation 
                at these academic institutions. We are investing in 
                Tribal language revitalization, protecting Tribal 
                voting rights,

[[Page 66532]]

                and working with Tribal partners to tackle the crisis 
                of missing or murdered Indigenous people.

                As we look ahead, my Administration will continue to 
                write a new and better chapter in the story of our 
                Nation-to-Nation relationships. We will defend Tribal 
                sovereignty, self-government, self-determination, and 
                the homelands of Tribal Nations. We will support Tribal 
                economies, recognizing that Tribal governments provide 
                a vast array of physical infrastructure, social 
                services, and good-paying jobs that benefit their 
                citizens and surrounding communities. We will keep 
                fighting for better health care, child care, education, 
                and housing in Tribal communities. We will always honor 
                the profound impact Native Americans continue to have 
                in shaping our Nation and bringing us closer to the 
                more perfect Union we know we can and must be.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of 
                the United States of America, by virtue of the 
                authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws 
                of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2022 
                as National Native American Heritage Month. I urge all 
                Americans, as well as their elected representatives at 
                the Federal, State, and local levels, to observe this 
                month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and 
                activities, and to celebrate November 25, 2022, as 
                Native American Heritage Day.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord 
                two thousand twenty-two, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                seventh.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2022-24170
Filed 11-2-22; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3395-F3-P