Indigenous Peoples Day

Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday in the United States that celebrates and honors indigenous American peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures. It is celebrated across the United States on the second Monday in October, and is an official city and state holiday in various localities. It is observed in place of Columbus Day or along with it.

This day is in recognition of the disease, genocide, and slavery brought to the Americas through the interactions of Columbus and other European explorers with Indigenous peoples. In addition, the arrival of European explorers and settlers also meant that Indigenous peoples increasingly lost access to their ancestral lands and natural resources, which significantly impacted their ability to practice aspects of their cultures and traditions.

Brief History of Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Dr. Arthur Caswell Parker, a member of the Seneca Nation, was the director of the Rochester Museum of Arts and Science (now the Rochester Museum & Science Center) from 1924 to 1945 and an early proponent of establishing a day to honor Indigenous peoples. He convinced the Boy Scouts of America to observe a day for “First Americans” from 1912 to 1915.

In 1914, Rev. Red Fox James, now presumed to be a member of the Blackfeet Nation, campaigned for a national holiday to honor Indigenous peoples, traveling more than 4,000 miles on horseback to seek support from state governors. On December 14, 1915, he presented endorsements from 24 governors to President Woodrow Wilson at the White House.

Also in 1915, the president of the American Indian Association declared “American Indian Day” on the second Saturday of May each year. New York was one of the first states to officially proclaim this observance on May 13, 1916. Other states celebrated on the fourth Friday in September.

In 1977, during the United Nations International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas, an “International Day of Solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas,” to be observed on October 12, was proposed as a national holiday.

In 1990, South Dakota became the first state to replace Columbus Day (the second Monday in October) with Native Americans’ Day as an official state holiday.

In 1992, Berkeley, California, became the first city to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day officially. This coincided with the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in 1492.