BEECH GROVE — In recognition of Black History Month, the Samuel Bryan Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, recently donated to the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library the DAR publications, Forgotten Patriots-African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War. This resource has over 800 pages of history and genealogy, and the Forgotten Patriots Supplement has additional updated and new material. The Forgotten Patriots and its supplement have been recognized as an excellent source about Native Americans and African Americans.
Regent Patricia Moy and Molly Sanders, chair of the America 250 committee, presented the Forgotten Patriots reference books to Mike Williams, head librarian, and Steve Lane, special collections librarian of the Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library.
The DAR has currently launched an important five-year effort called the “E Pluribus Unum Educational Initiative” to increase awareness of non-traditional Revolutionary War Patriots, including African American, Native American, and female patriots. There are more than 5,000 African American or mixed descent patriots that served in the American Revolution.
Thousands of Native Americans and enslaved individuals were soldiers or aided the militias, and the armies of the American Revolution as spies or scouts, to whom much is owed, and little has been given in terms of honor, valor, and sacrifice.
The first black woman to join the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was in 1977.
