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Inaugural holiday celebrates indigenous peoples at FLC
On the second Monday in October, Fort Lewis College will celebrate not Christopher Columbus, but those residents who were already at home in the so-called New World when the Genoan explorer, sailing under the Spanish flag, stumbled ashore in 1492.
On October 10, FLC’s first Indigenous Peoples Day celebration will feature storytelling sessions, lectures, a multicultural potluck lunch, a photo mural dedication, and a concert by acclaimed Canadian First Nations group A Tribe Called Red.
It makes for a day of fun and interesting events, for sure. But the real message of Indigenous Peoples Day is one of learning, sharing, and healing.
“It's pretty exciting. It’s really cool that it creates some dialogue on campus between the Native students and non-Native students,” says Joey Dell (Anthropology, ‘10), Student Support Specialist for FLC’s Native American Center and a member of the Ketchikan Indian Corporation in southeast Alaska.
“For the Native students here to have a voice and be able to say 'this is what we think of our histories, the histories from our perspective from all over the Americas,’ gives a voice to people who typically haven’t had a voice,” he explains.
In December 2015, a proposal to designate Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day on campus was passed by ASFLC and the FLC Board of Trustees. The designation is a logical and respectful tribute for an institution whose student body is one-third Native American and which is located near several thriving Native communities and important historic and archaic indigenous sites.
After the College’s designation and inspired by spurring from senior Native American & Indigenous Studies major Ruthie Edd, the Durango City Council in January passed Resolution No. R-2016-2, which states:
“Be it resolved by the City Council of the City of Durango, Colorado, that the second Monday in October shall be known as ‘Indigenous Peoples Day’ in the City of Durango to celebrate the contributions, the enduring culture and traditions of all Native Americans and Indigenous Peoples.”
Edd, a Durango resident and Navajo Nation member, saw the recognition of a holiday in place of Columbus Day as a way to give students, teachers, and the community a time to acknowledge and talk about the histories of Native American and indigenous peoples worldwide.
“It can be really hard, especially for younger students, to be a voice for their culture. It’s really to celebrate and to heal and also to connect on both sides,” Edd said following the designation. “It’s a good platform to talk about these issues, and to really heal from them for Native people.”
Motivated by those successes, State Representative Joe Salazar to introduce a similar motion to the Colorado state legislature. The legislation was eventually killed by the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee in April.
Despite the defeat, “it provided an awful lot of encouragement for us to move forward,” Salazar said of FLC’s leadership on the issue. “I’m very proud of the students down there.”
With these declarations, FLC and Durango are joining a growing number of places and groups that have adopted the re-designation of Columbus Day. First passed by Berkeley, California, in 1992, similar resolutions have also been passed in Denver, Seattle, Minneapolis, Albuquerque, St. Paul, Portland, Oregon, and by the State of Alaska. Most recently, this summer, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Boulder, Colorado, each established their own Indigenous Peoples Day.
At Fort Lewis College, Indigenous Peoples Day joins established Columbus Day alternative programming in the annual “Real History of the Americas,” a student-run day of multicultural events and presentations that has been held since 2008. The unifying theme is explorations of the many non-mainstream stories of peoples who have a history on the North and South American continents, including those of the Hispanic, African-American, Asian, Native, and LGBT communities.
“Real History began as a shared afternoon of cultural events between the Native American Center and El Centro, when the two groups were located across campus from each other,” explains FLC alumna and El Centro de Muchos Colores Coordinator Shirena Trujillo-Long (English and Spanish, ’00). “It came out of that, and from the idea that we have shared histories. So we said, let's celebrate that.”
"The goal is sharing those real histories,” she continues. “There's a lot of research that shows that people need to share their stories, feel heard, and contribute to the storylines of their communities. Indigenous Peoples Day is borne of that same desire. Not of hate -- this is not Columbus bashing. This is about celebrating histories. The goal is to make sure all stories are told."
While no opposition to the College’s and city’s designations was visible in Durango or at FLC, resistance has risen on the state level and in other communities from those who argue that any attempt to eliminate Columbus Day is an attack on Italian Americans who celebrate the holiday to honor their Italian culture.
Proponents of the change, though, say that at the heart of the issue is not wanting to honor a man who, they say, engaged in genocide and slavery. But the real value of the change, they argue, runs deeper than just wanting to diss Columbus.
“I see it as a victory on behalf of indigenous peoples everywhere,” says Dell. “Columbus Day is not a day of celebration -- if anything, it's a day we recognize that indigenous people saw Columbus sail up to their shores. But Columbus' incredibly violent history with peoples of the Caribbean put a pretty bad taste in Native people's mouths about his history.”
“Indigenous People’s Day is showing a shift in the administration and the government by allowing Native people to have a voice,” he continues, “and also by recognizing that there were atrocities committed in the colonization process. It's good that that recognition creates a dialogue where people may not have been thinking about this.”
And that is a conversation everyone of any background can participate in.
“While of Italian descent, I enjoy learning from different cultures. I self-identify as human,” says Bryan Dalla-Cundiff, a senior Anthropology major and El Centro’s student liaison on the Real History of the Americas planning committee. “It’s important for us to know what our real history is.”
“That's why I'm in anthropology, because the further you go back, the more you realize we all came from the same place,” he adds. “We live in different geographical regions that in turn have a different effect on our physical aspects. And each region develops different cultures because that's our human psychological response to being socially active. That’s why it's important to remember that we all are humans."
Indigenous Peoples Day Events
October 10, 2016
events held in Student Union Ballroom unless otherwise indicated
10 a.m.
Welcome & opening prayer, ceremonies, and statements
City of Durango recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day by Ruthie Edd
Storytelling: “Our Real Histories” by Teahonna James & Shirena Long
Indigenous Peoples’ Day Proclamation Reading by Ruthie Edd
11 a.m.
City of Durango recognizes Indigenous Peoples’ Day by speaker Bill Bolden
11:10 a.m.
Statewide Indigenous People’s Day efforts by Rep. Joe Salazar
11:30 a.m.
Multicultural Potluck: “Food- the International Language”
Noon-1 p.m.
Keynote address by Dr. Iris PrettyPaint, “Finding Hope from the Inside Out: Cultural Resilience and Historical Trauma”
1 p.m.
Apache Crown Dancers from Theodore Roosevelt School Ft. Apache school, Student Union Plaza
1:20 p.m.
Protectors of the Land & Waters discourse on DAPL by Maya Cory
1:45-4 pm
ALTERNATIVE VOICES WORKSHOPS: Artists & Academics & Activists, participants may choose two workshops to attend from the options below
1:45-2:45 p.m. Artists & Activists
Chip Thomas in Ballroom
Jared Yazzie in Dolores RoomRep. Joe Salazar in Vallecito
Room
3-4 p.m. Academics
Dr. Iris PrettyPaint in Vallecito Room
Evangeline Parsons Yazzie with “Stories from the Long Walk” in Ballroom
4:30 p.m.
Mural Dedication ceremonies, Mears Apartments
President Thomas
Oration by artist Chip Thomas & poetry dedication by Demian Dinéyazhe
FLC Music Major Alex Blocker Live PerformanceBallet Folklorico
de Durango Performance
7:30 p.m. "A Tribe Called Red,” Community Concert Hall