WASHINGTON – For the first time in their histories, the National Museum of the American Indian and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services will co-host a special exhibit of the Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial during the 2013 National Police Week. The special exhibit will be located in the Museum’s Potomac Atrium from May 13 through 17.
“National Police Week is an important opportunity to educate the public about the Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and honor those in law enforcement who have given their lives in the line of duty in Indian Country,” said Kevin K. Washburn, Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs. “I want to thank the National Museum of the American Indian and its director, Kevin Gover, for co-hosting this special exhibit on the Memorial.”
“The National Museum of the American Indian is pleased and proud to host this special exhibit of the Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in conjunction with the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services,” said Museum Director Kevin Gover (Pawnee). “It is only fitting that the Museum, which is home to so much of Indian Country’s history, should acknowledge during National Police Week those law enforcement officers who have given their lives to protect Indian people.”
The Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial includes the names of 101 tribal, state, local and federal law enforcement officers working on federal Indian lands and in tribal communities who have died in the line of duty since the mid-1800s. It is located at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, N.M.
First dedicated on May 7, 1992, at the United States Indian Police Academy then in Marana, Ariz., both the Memorial and Academy were moved to their present site on the Center’s Artesia campus and re-dedicated there on May 6, 1993. Each year since 1991, the Office of Justice Services has hosted a service at the site to honor the officers on the Memorial.
The special exhibit, which is maintained by the Office of Justice Services at its headquarters in the Department of the Interior building in Washington, D.C., includes a plaque with all of the names inscribed on the Memorial, a binder with officer profiles, a display case of police badges, and a Book of Remembrance that visitors can sign.
According to the website of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, President John K. Kennedy in 1962 proclaimed May 15th as National Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which that date fell as National Police Week. Established by a joint resolution of Congress the same year, National Police Week pays special recognition to those law enforcement officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty for the safety and protection of others.
Established in 1989 through an Act of Congress, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian is an institution of living cultures dedicated to advancing knowledge and understanding of the lives, languages, literature, history and arts of the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere. For more information about the museum and its public program schedules, visit www.AmericanIndian.si.edu.
The BIA Office of Justice Services’ mission is to enhance public safety and protect property in Indian Country by funding or providing law enforcement, corrections and tribal court services to the nation’s federally recognized tribes. It operates 36 law enforcement programs, oversees 152 tribally operated law enforcement programs, coordinates emergency preparedness support on federal Indian lands by working cooperatively with other federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies throughout Indian Country, and provides training and professional development to BIA and tribal law enforcement through the U.S. Indian Police Academy in Artesia, N.M.
Visit the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center website at http://www.fletc.gov/aboutfletc/locations/artesia/indian-country-law-enforcement-officers-memorial.html to view the Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial and a list of officers’ names.
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WHO: |
The National Museum of the American Indian and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services. |
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WHAT: |
Special exhibit of the Indian Country Law Enforcement Officers Memorial during National Police Week. |
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WHEN: |
May 13-17, 2013, from 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. EDT daily. |
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WHERE: |
The National Museum of the American Indian, Potomac Atrium (1st level), 4th & Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. (located on the National Mall between the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and the U.S. Capitol Building); Phone: 202-633-1000. |
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