To celebrate, commemorate and honor the many contributions and rich ancestry of Native American people and their culture.

Here is a list of some of those contributions:

Native American Contributions to America: FOOD: potatoes, beans, corn, peanuts, pumpkins, tomatoes,squash, peppers, nuts, melons, and sunflower seeds (sixty percent of the worlds food supply comes from Native Americans); GAMES: Canoeing, snowshoeing, tobogganing, lacrosse, relay races, tug-of-wars, and ball games; GOVERNMENT: Benjamin Franklin said that the idea of the federal government, in which certain powers are given to a central government and all other powers are reserved for the states, was borrowed from the system of government used by the Iroquoian League of Nations; WORDS: barbecue, caribou, chipmunk, woodchuck, hammock, toboggan, skunk, mahogany, hurricane, and moccasin. Many towns, cities and rivers have names of Native American origin. Just a few of these include: Seattle, Spokane, Yakima, Pocatello, Chinook, Flathead Lake, Milwaukee, Ottawa, Miami, Wichita, and Kalispell; MILITARY SERVICE: more than 8,000 Native Americans volunteered and served during World War I. Well over 24,000 served during World War II. One of the most notable contributions during World War II was the service of the Navajo Code Talkers, a special group of volunteers who did top-secret work using a secret code in Navajo that could not be broken; MODERN youth groups such as Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Campfire Girls and the YMCA Indian Guides, all include programs based largely on Indian lore, arts and crafts, character building and outdoor campcraft and living; Ecology; Medicine; Entertainment, Athelets and so much more...