Monday, October 12, is Indigenous Peoples Day. Three states: Maine, New Mexico, and South Dakota, call it Native American Day and celebrate it as a holiday. Minnesota and eight other states observe this day, but not as a paid holiday.
A delegation of Native Nations first proposed Indigenous Peoples Day in 1977 during a United Nations-sponsored Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous populations in the Americas. Through the years it has been catching on, with many cities declaring
October 12 as a day to celebrate the first people.
Both Cook County and the City of Grand Marais have issued proclamations celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day. So too has ISD 166.
So what is this day about? Some view it strictly as a counter-celebration to Columbus Day, which honors Christopher Columbus’s discovery of the “New” World. Columbus and those that followed him were often cruel to the indigenous people they encountered, even taking some of them as slaves. Others view it as a day to celebrate indigenous people of the Americas, their history, cultures, talents and gifts.
In Cook County’s 2015 proclamation, it states in part, “Indigenous People’s Day shall be an opportunity to celebrate the thriving cultures and positive values of the Indigenous Peoples of our regions. Indigenous People’s Day shall be used to reflect upon the ongoing struggles of Indigenous Peoples, and to celebrate the thriving culture and value that Indigenous nations add to our county.”
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