Recognizing the Past, Empowering the Future: Native American Heritage Month in The Land

By Marcia Pledger

Long before Gen. Moses Cleaveland set foot in Ohio in the 1790s, Indigenous Peoples flourished, establishing fortified towns that reflected their rich cultural heritage. Due to wars and forced relocations, most of these settlements were lost by the 1800s, leaving only a small number of Native Americans in Cleveland. Today, an estimated 3,750 Native Americans, including the Lakota and Dine people, live in Cuyahoga County, comprising .3% of the total population.

(For those interested in learning more about Native American culture and its history in our region, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park offers a self-guided Native American Heritage Walking Tour along the Towpath Trail.)

Cleveland is among cities nationwide that played a role in changing the lives of Native Americans in recent decades, including the role that St. John’s Episcopal in Ohio City played in being among eight relocation centers offering employment opportunities for Native Americans.

While these programs aimed to integrate Native Americans into urban life, many viewed them as efforts to erase Native identity through forced assimilation. One way Cleveland’s indigenous community preserves its rich cultures is with the Lake Erie Native American Council, which was instrumental in changing the Cleveland Indians’ name to the Guardians and retiring the Chief Wahoo logo.

November is Native American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the diverse cultures of the 574 federally recognized tribes and uplift Indigenous voices. Leading these efforts is Cynthia Connolly, board chair of the Lake Erie Native American Council and director of programming at The City Club of Cleveland. We spoke with her about Native American Heritage Month and the importance of supporting Cleveland’s Native communities.

Modern Representation

“My whole drumbeat is to focus on the modern representation and visibility of Native Americans,” Connolly expressed. “The portrayals that I see are not me, my husband (an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Glenn Research Center) or my daughter. I like to play a role in changing the way Americans have been conditioned to think about us. I’m always trying to raise awareness about who we are today.”

Connolly’s work involves promoting Native voices in public discourse through her more than 100 City Club programs each year. “Right now, the average American has zero perception of who Native American people are today,” Connolly said, emphasizing how limited coverage of modern Native issues affects visibility.

Damaging Stereotypes

Native stereotypes and images have long been damaging to Indigenous people, Connolly expressed, referencing Cleveland’s past sports mascot, which pictured a bright red skin color, a huge toothy smile, triangular eyes and a very large nose that looked nothing like a real human being. “The mascot issue was offensive and racist, and it plays into a larger issue of how America sees us. And it also plays into our invisibility,” she said.

A 2015 Penn State study found that 87% of U.S. public school content about Native Americans covered only pre-1900 contexts, making modern Native life nearly invisible in classrooms. Connolly noted, “We are rarely discussed in the context of being your neighbors, coworkers, or classmates in 2024. This modern erasure and invisibility is undeniably one of the most challenging issues our community is facing.”

Local and National Efforts

Local institutions are committing to promoting respectful representation of Native Americans. The Cleveland Museum of Art plans to enhance its Native American art collection, strengthen educational programs and offer fellowships and internships to support Native careers in the arts. CMA has covered or taken down Native art and artifacts due to changes to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, but highlighted Native art at the recent showcase Still Emerging: Native American Works on Paper, which ran from February 1 to June 7 of this year.

A new generation of activists and leaders, including Connolly, is focused on improving the lives and cultures of Native American communities while educating the public on the future and history of these complex communities. “Work is being done by a number of Native-led organizations to increase representation and visibility of Native leadership and creators. Once we are in these positions and have a seat at the table, we then have the power to change the narrative and correct perceptions of who we actually are as a modern culture,” she said.

“We are seeing this play out with Native leadership like Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland,” Connolly said. “We are seeing it with the success of TV shows like “Reservation Dogs” and with Lily Gladstone becoming the first Native American to be nominated for an Oscar in the acting category.”