#FlashbackFriday: Native American Culture at the Exchange Through the Years

November is National Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month, a celebration that has roots dating back more than 100 years ago, when the first American Indian Day was celebrated in New York thanks to the efforts of Blackfeet Nation member Red Fox James. James successfully rode across the country on horseback to gain approval from 24 state governments to have a day to honor American Indians nationwide.

In 1986, Congress passed Public Law. 99-471,which authorized and requested the president to proclaim the week of November 23-30, 1986, as “American Indian Week.” In 1990, then-President George H.W. Bush officially designated the month of November “National American Indian Heritage Month,” which is now called “American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.”

Well before those dates, the Exchange had a connection to Native American history, including stores at many installations with histories dating back to when they were in what was officially called Indian Territory. And Exchange associates with Indian backgrounds often honored their heritage. Here are some items Flashback Friday found in the pages of old Exchange Posts.

From 1959: Charles Tsoodle, a Fort Carson associate, honors his Kiowa heritage during an Exchange anniversary celebration. Tsoodle, who was known to his teammates as “Little Warrior,” was born on a Kiowa reservation in Oklahoma. His grandmother, one of two survivors of an Indian attack on a wagon train, was raised by the tribe and later chosen by the chief to be his wife. When her family found her, she chose to remain with the tribe. Tsoodle’s son-in-law, a Taos Pueblo Indian, also worked at Fort Carson.

From 1973: Wilson Roberts, an administrative clerk at Exchange HQ, displays some crafts he made with supplies from the Inter-Tribal Center for Indians in Dallas. Roberts, a Choctaw Indian, received the 1972-73 Outstanding Service Award from the Dallas Council of Choctaws for his work at the center and for other volunteer work for Indian affairs.

From 1974: Samuel Mora, a Cuna Indian born in Panama’s San Blas Islands, joined the Exchange in 1934 as an errand boy in Colon, on the Atlantic side of Panama, riding his bike 25 miles to and from work. He later left for a job as a food manager with the Navy Exchange, then went through a series of jobs in the ’30s before eventually returning to the Exchange during World War II, working at the Fort Gulick PX. He left again in 1942 due to an injury but came back in 1966, working at the Fort Clayton Exchange. During one of his non-Exchange jobs in 1937, the Coast Guard mistook him for a Japanese scouting the defenses of the Canal Zone. “I did not have any problem proving I was an Indian, and they let me go,” he told the Exchange Post with a smile in 1974.

From November 1976: Boy Scouts from the Mescalero Chapter of Gila Lodge, Order of the Arrow in a photo from Native American Week at Fort Bliss—the first Exchange Post coverage of an exchange participating in an American Indian-related special emphasis week. The Scouts performed several authentic Indian dances in front of Exchange customers.

From late 1980: A Kiowa-Comanche fancy feather dancer at the first Native American Heritage Days at Exchange headquarters in Dallas. The celebration was organized by a multitribal group of HQ associates who had asked for an opportunity to introduce their cultures to their teammates. Associates who were members of Navajo, Comanche, Chickasaw, Kiowa and other tribes were involved in the event.

From 1989: Andrew Foster, a service station attendant at the Tinker AFB Exchange in Oklahoma, was also the Head Man Dancer, one of the most important people to participate in Indian dances. Foster, a Creek-Seminole, had also been adopted by the Otoes and Kiowas. Outside of work, Foster worked with tribal youths and strove for the preservation of Indian arts, crafts and cultural values.

In 1990, President George H.W. Bush approved a joint resolution of Congress designating November as American Indian Heritage Month. The Exchange’s 1992 poster commemorating the month uses an image of an older Native American teaching youth. The poster features Iron Eyes Cody, best-known for playing the “Crying Indian” in a “Keep America Beautiful” anti-litter ad from the ’70s (Cody, who died in 1999, was later revealed to be an actor of Italian descent who specialized in playing Native Americans). An American Indian/Alaskan Native program manager had met Cody at the 1992 National Congress of American Indians and persuaded him to pose for the poster.

Sources: Exchange Post archives, Harvard Countway Library, Native American Heritage Month official website