“I never allow a lack of knowledge on a particular subject matter to hold me back from doing something,” said James Parker Shield, Little Shell Chippewa, when talking about the National Native American Hall of Fame.
“About ten years ago I thought: there is a Hall of Fame for just about everything else, why not Indians?” asked Parker Shield. “Then, I didn’t know much about museums and such, but I saw the need.”
Since then, with the help and support of many tribal leaders stretching from Florida to Alaska and resolutions of support provided by the National Indian Education Association, the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (tribal colleges) and others, that dream was realized in 2018 when the National Native Hall of Fame (NNAHF), a 501(c)3 organization inducted its first honorees.