National American Indian Heritage Month, 1997

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Title 3--
The President

Proclamation 7047 of November 1, 1997

National American Indian Heritage Month, 1997

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

American Indians and Alaska Natives have played a vital
role in the life of our country, and their many
contributions have enhanced the freedom, prosperity,
and greatness of America today. In celebrating National
American Indian Heritage Month, we reaffirm our
country's commitment to remember those contributions
and to honor the unique heritage of our continent's
first inhabitants.

This special observance also reflects our continuing
commitment to American Indian and Alaska Native tribal
governments as an integral part of the social,
political, and economic fabric of the United States.
The framers of our Constitution incorporated Indian
nations into the political and legal framework of this
country, forever joining the destiny of the tribal
nations with that of the American people. By this
action, our founders charged themselves and future
generations with the moral obligation to guard the
rights and fundamental liberties of our country's
tribal peoples as zealously as we protect the rights of
all Americans.

As we enter the next millennium, we have an exciting
opportunity to open a new era of understanding,
cooperation, and respect among all of America's people.
We must work together to tear down the walls of
separation and mistrust and build a strong foundation
for the future. To accomplish this, we must strengthen
tribal governments, improve the quality of education
for American Indian and Alaska Native youth, build
stable, diversified economies in tribal communities,
create high-wage jobs, and ensure that all our citizens
have the skills, education, and opportunities they need
to reach their full potential.

The government-to-government relationship between the
tribes and the United States embodies the fundamental
American belief that people of widely varied and
diverse cultural backgrounds can join together to build
a great country. Such greatness can be sustained,
however, only so long as we honor the ideals and
principles upon which America is founded and abide by
our commitments to all our people. In recognition of
America's moral and legal obligations to American
Indians and Alaska Natives, and in light of the special
trust relationship between tribal governments and the
Government of the United States, we celebrate National
American Indian Heritage Month.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United
States, do hereby proclaim November 1997 as National
American Indian Heritage Month. I urge all Americans,
as well as their elected representatives at the
Federal, State, local, and tribal levels, to observe
this month with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and
activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
first day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen
hundred and ninety-seven, and of the Independence of
the United States of America the two hundred and
twenty-second.