Page 18 - IAV Digital Magazine #603

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
From Alcatraz Island to a park in New York City, Native American people will celebrate their cen- turies-long history of resilience on Monday with ceremonies, dances and speeches.
The events across the U.S. come two years
after President Joe Biden officially commemorated Indigenous Peoples Day. An increasing number of states and cities have also recognized it — pivoting from a day long rooted in the celebration of explorer Christopher Columbus to one focused on the people whose lives and culture were forever changed by colonialism.
“This day is about reclaim- ing histories,” said Kyle Mays, an associate profes- sor of American Indian Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. “It’s acknowledging the his- tory of dispossession and violence against Indigenous people.”
Indigenous Peoples
Day has been recognized
for decades in different forms and under a variety of names to celebrate Native Americans’ history and culture and to recog- nize the challenges they continue to face.
In 2021, Biden issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples Day. He said in a statement that the day is meant to “honor America’s first inhabitants and the Tribal Nations that contin- ue to thrive today.”
It is typically observed on the second Monday in October, the same day as Columbus Day, a federal holiday established decades ago to recognize Columbus’ sighting in 1492 of what came to be known as the Americas.
“Columbus was a lost explorer who stumbled into this part of the world and brought famine, coloniza- tion, the deaths of millions of Indigenous peoples,” said Nick Tilsen, president and CEO of the NDN Collective, an Indigenous- led advocacy group. “For
this country to celebrate that history is absolutely disrespectful.”
Although it is not a federal holiday, 17 states — including Washington, South Dakota and Maine — as well as Washington, D.C., have holidays honor- ing Native Americans, some of which are on the second Monday in October, according to
the Pew Research Center. Indigenous Peoples Day is typically paired with Columbus Day or replaces the federal holiday alto- gether. Dozens of cities and school systems observe Indigenous Peoples Day as well.
Earlier this year, Anchorage and Phoenix became two of the latest municipalities to officially designate Indigenous Peoples Day a holiday. And on Monday, several U.S. lawmakers announced they had rein- troduced legislation meant to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day as a federal holiday.
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