Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month | |
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Official name | Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month |
Observed by | United States |
Date | May |
Frequency | Annual |
First time | 1991 |
Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month (as of 2021 [update] , officially changed from Asian American Pacific Islander Month) [1] is observed in the United States during the month of May, and recognizes the contributions and influence of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islander Americans to the history, culture, and achievements of the United States. [2] [3]
The first Asians documented in the Americas arrived in 1587, when Filipinos landed in California; [4] [5] from 1898 to 1946, the Philippines was an American possession. [6] The next group of Asians documented in what would be the United States were Indians in Jamestown, documented as early as 1635. [7] In 1778, the first Chinese to reach what would be the United States, arrived in Hawaii. [8] In 1788, the first Native Hawaiian arrived on the continental United States, in Oregon; [9] in 1900, Hawaii was annexed by the United States. [10] [lower-alpha 1] The next group of Asians documented in what would be the United States were Japanese, who arrived in Hawaii in 1806. [12] In 1884, the first Koreans arrived in the United States. [13] In 1898, Guam was ceded to the United States; [14] beginning in the 1900s, Chamorros began to migrate to California and Hawaii. [15] [lower-alpha 2] In 1904, what is now American Samoa was ceded to the United States; [17] beginning in the 1920s, Samoans began to migrate to Hawaii and the continental United States, with the first Samoans documented in Hawaii in 1920. [18] In 1912, the first Vietnamese was documented in the United States. [19]
A former congressional staffer in the 1970s, Jeanie Jew, first approached Representative Frank Horton with the idea of designating a month to recognize Asian Pacific Americans, following the bicentennial celebrations. [20] In June 1977, Representatives Horton, and Norman Y. Mineta, introduced a United States House of Representatives resolution to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. [21] [22] A similar bill was introduced in the Senate a month later by Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga. [21] [23]
The proposed resolutions sought that May be designated for two reasons. First, on May 7, 1843, the first Japanese immigrant, Nakahama Manjirō, arrived in the United States. [24] [25] [26] More than two decades later, on May 10, 1869, the golden spike was driven into the first transcontinental railroad, which was completed using Chinese labor. [24] [25] [27]
President Jimmy Carter signed a joint resolution for the celebration on October 5, 1978. [21]
On May 1, 2009, President Barack Obama signed Proclamation 8369, recognizing the month of May as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. [1] [28]
On April 30, 2021, President Joe Biden signed Proclamation 10189, recognizing the month of May as Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. [1] [3]
"A joint resolution authorizing the President to proclaim annually a week during the first 10 days in May as Pacific/Asian American Heritage Week." was text in House Joint Resolution 540; this resolution as well as Senate Joint Resolution 72 did not pass. [29] Ultimately, though, Rep. Horton's House Joint Resolution 1007 was passed by both the House and the Senate, and was signed by President Jimmy Carter on October 5, 1978, to become Public Law 95-419. [29] In 1990, George H. W. Bush signed a bill passed by Congress to extend Asian-American Heritage Week to a month; [30] May was officially designated as Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month two years later. [24] [29] [31]
During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, communities celebrate the achievements and contributions of Asian and Pacific Americans with community festivals, government-sponsored activities and educational activities for students. [32]
Hawaii is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about 2,000 miles (3,200 km) southwest of the U.S. mainland. It is the only state not on the North American mainland, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state in the tropics. It also hosts 10 out of 14 climates - the highest for any country subdivision - and is one of two US states with a tropical climate.
Oceania is a geographical region including Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Outside of the English-speaking world, Oceania is generally considered a continent, while Australia is regarded as an island or a continental landmass within that continent. Spanning the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, at the centre of the water hemisphere, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of about 9,000,000 square kilometres (3,500,000 sq mi) and a population of around 44.4 million as of 2022. Oceania is the smallest continent in land area and the second-least populated after Antarctica.
Asian Americans are Americans with ancestry from the continent of Asia. Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous peoples of the continent of Asia, the usage of the term "Asian" by the United States Census Bureau is a race group that only includes people with origins or ancestry from East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Indian subcontinent and excludes people with ethnic origins in certain parts of Asia, including West Asia who are now categorized as Middle Eastern Americans starting from the 2030 Census. Furthermore, Central Asians are not mentioned in any census racial category. The "Asian" census category includes people who indicate their race(s) on the census as "Asian" or reported entries such as "Chinese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean, Japanese, Pakistani, Malaysian, and Other Asian". In 2020, Americans who identified as Asian alone (19,886,049) or in combination with other races (4,114,949) made up 7.2% of the U.S. population.
Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the Pacific Islands. As an ethnic/racial term, it is used to describe the original peoples—inhabitants and diasporas—of any of the three major subregions of Oceania or any other island located in the Pacific Ocean.
In the law of the United States, an insular area is a U.S.-associated jurisdiction that is not part of a U.S. state or the District of Columbia. This includes fourteen U.S. territories administered under U.S. sovereignty, as well as three sovereign states each with a Compact of Free Association with the United States. The term also may be used to refer to the previous status of the Swan Islands, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, as well as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands when it existed.
Territories of the United States are sub-national administrative divisions overseen by the federal government of the United States. The various American territories differ from the U.S. states and Indian reservations as they are not sovereign entities. In contrast, each state has a sovereignty separate from that of the federal government and each federally recognized Native American tribe possesses limited tribal sovereignty as a "dependent sovereign nation". Territories are classified by incorporation and whether they have an "organized" government through an organic act passed by the Congress. American territories are under American sovereignty and, consequently, may be treated as part of the U.S. proper in some ways and not others. Unincorporated territories in particular are not considered to be integral parts of the U.S., and the U.S. Constitution applies only partially in those territories.
Hapa is a Hawaiian word for someone of multiracial ancestry. In Hawaii, the word refers to any person of mixed ethnic heritage, regardless of the specific mixture. The term is used for any multiracial person of partial East Asian, Southeast Asian, or Pacific Islander mixture in California. In what can be characterized as trans-cultural diffusion or the wave model, this latter usage has also spread to Massachusetts, Ohio, and Oregon.
Native Hawaiians are the Indigenous Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands.
The United States has a racially and ethnically diverse population. At the federal level, race and ethnicity have been categorized separately. The most recent United States census recognized five racial categories, as well as people who belong to two or more of the racial categories. The United States also recognizes the broader notion of ethnicity. The 2000 census and 2010 American Community Survey inquired about the "ancestry" of residents, while the 2020 census allowed people to enter their "origins". The Census Bureau also classified respondents as either Hispanic or Latino, identifying as an ethnicity, which comprises the minority group in the nation.
Filipino American History Month (FAHM) is celebrated in the United States during the month of October. In 1991, Filipino American National Historical Society (FANHS) board of trustees proposed the first annual Filipino American History Month to commence in October 1992.
Pacific Islander Americans are Americans who are of Pacific Islander ancestry. For its purposes, the United States census also counts Aboriginal Australians as part of this group.
Asian American history is the history of ethnic and racial groups in the United States who are of Asian descent. The term "Asian American" was an idea invented in the 1960s to bring together Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino Americans for strategic political purposes. Soon other groups of Asian origin, such as Korean, Indian, and Vietnamese Americans were added. For example, while many Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino immigrants arrived as unskilled workers in significant numbers from 1850 to 1905 and largely settled in Hawaii and California, many Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Hmong Americans arrived in the United States as refugees following the Vietnam War. These separate histories have often been overlooked in conventional frameworks of Asian American history.
Asian people are the people of the continent of Asia. The term may also refer to their descendants.
Americans are the citizens and nationals of the United States. The United States is home to people of many racial and ethnic origins; consequently, American law does not equate nationality with race or ethnicity but with citizenship. The majority of Americans or their ancestors immigrated to the United States or are descended from people who were brought as slaves within the past five centuries, with the exception of the Native American population and people from Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines, who became American through expansion of the country in the 19th century; additionally, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and Northern Mariana Islands came under American sovereignty in the 20th century, although American Samoans are only nationals and not citizens of the United States.
American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the Polynesia region of the South Pacific Ocean. Centered on 14.3°S 170.7°W, it is 40 miles (64 km) southeast of the island country of Samoa, east of the International Date Line and the Wallis and Futuna Islands, west of the Cook Islands, north of Tonga, and some 310 miles (500 km) south of Tokelau. American Samoa is the southernmost territory of the United States, situated 2,200 miles (3,500 km) southwest of the U.S. state of Hawaii, and one of two U.S. territories south of the Equator, along with the uninhabited Jarvis Island.
Asian Americans, who are Americans of Asian descent, have fought and served on behalf of the United States since the American Revolutionary War. During the American Civil War Asian Americans fought for both the Union and the Confederacy. Afterwards Asian Americans served primarily in the U.S. Navy until the Philippine–American War.
Asian/Pacific American (APA) or Asian/Pacific Islander (API) or Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) or Asian American and Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islander (AANHPI) is a term sometimes used in the United States when including both Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.
Asian Americans represent a growing share of the national population and of the electorate. The lower political participation of Asian Americans has been raised as a concern, especially as it relates to their influence on politics in the United States. Asian Americans were once a strong constituency for Republicans. In 1992, George H.W. Bush won 55% of Asian voters. In the 21st century, Asian Americans have become a key Democratic Party constituency. As of 2023, 62% of Asian American registered voters identify with or lean towards the Democratic Party, in contrast to 34% who identify with or lean towards the Republicans.
Amata Catherine Coleman Radewagen, commonly called Aumua Amata, is an American Samoan politician who is the current delegate for the United States House of Representatives from American Samoa. Radewagen, a Republican, was elected on November 4, 2014, after defeating Democratic incumbent Eni Faleomavaega; she was the first-ever Republican delegate since the office had been created in 1970 and began her tenure on January 3, 2015. She also serves as the national committeewoman for the Republican Party of American Samoa. Amata is the first woman to represent American Samoa in the U.S. Congress.
Formerly known as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, the name officially changed to Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month in April 2021, with President Joe Biden's signing of Proclamation 10189.