Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day!
Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday that celebrates and honors Indigenous peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures, while acknowledging their resilience in the face of a long history of abuse and marginalization. It is celebrated across the United States on the second Monday in October, and is an official city and state holiday in various localities.
History of Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Though it was initially proposed at a United Nations Conference in 1977, the first state to actually hold a form of Indigenous Peoples’ Day (called Native American Day) was South Dakota in 1989. This holiday has risen to prominence as a replacement for Columbus Day.
For America’s Indigenous population, Christopher Columbus's voyage and the subsequent spread of colonization is not something to be celebrated: His 1492 arrival began centuries of enslavement, abuse, and forced assimilation. That's why, for many, it’s important that Indigenous Peoples’ Day sits in direct opposition to the holiday celebrating the first people who tried to lay claim to the already-occupied land that's now called America.
That this approach has been taken up in the USA is not surprising, particularly in states which have a substantial indigenous community. South Dakota made its change in 1990. To date, the only other states to have switched from Columbus Day are Maine and New Mexico who both adopted Indigenous People's Day in 2019. Some states have avoided having to change by quietly dropping Columbus Day from its list of holidays. Nowadays it is estimated that only 14% of employees have a day off on Columbus Day.
How you can celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Here are some ways to educate yourself and support Indigenous communities:
Support Redhawk, who is committed to helping represent and support practitioners of traditional art forms. They also offer courses in these disciplines to keep them alive. They work to expand the notion of native art to encompass and celebrate modern work, too.
Buy and stream music from artists of Native descent.
If you're interested in supporting the landback movement, follow and/or donate to Indigenous organizers NDN Collective.
Donate to the Native Voter Fund to aid registration efforts, outreach, and protection against voter suppression.
Read work created by those who identify as Indigenous, such as best-selling writer Tommy Orange, author of National Book Critics Circle Award winner There There, and Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, the first Native American with that title.
Read—and share!—the Indigenous Peoples Day Toolkit from nonprofit IllumiNative, a comprehensive resource that also includes advice on subjects such as, "how to respond to opposition against Indigenous Peoples Day."