Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the annual holiday celebrated on the second Monday in October, honors, remembers and reflects on the Indigenous people of the United States. The holiday is commemorated in many different ways, and Native students on-campus have their own unique traditions. 

“I never actually celebrated growing up, but now I definitely wear my beads and I’m proud that it is Indigenous Persons’ Day and not Columbus Day,” sophomore fashion design major and member of the Choctaw nation, Sydney Beason said. “Myself and El Lewis are trying to get the Native American Student Association (NASA) up and running, and we’re trying to get something together to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”

Freshman biology major and President of the Native American Student Association, El Lewis (Taqqiq) of the Inuvialuit tribe said their tribe traditionally celebrates the holiday with dancing, drumming, throat singing and eating traditional Inuit foods such as muktuk, aqpik and bannock.

Professors are working to find ways to centralize Native people into their curriculum and the institution. 

“As a higher education institution, how do we better incorporate Native American students, faculty and staff and Native American studies, and not just as a field of study but across all curriculum?” Assistant Professor in the School of Peace and Conflict Studies, Dr. Elaine (Lan Yin) Hsiao said.

Hsiao, who identifies as an Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI), has studied the integration of peace and conflict studies with Indigenous and community governance. Hsiao explores the disruption and revitalization of areas and territories conserved by Indigenous peoples and local communities in Rwanda.

For years Indigenous Peoples’ Day was strictly recognized as Columbus Day, but Native people’s fight for historical awareness leaves the holiday’s true meaning up for debate. In 1977, the United Nations sponsored a conference discussing the discrimination against Indigenous populations in America, jumpstarting the holiday’s shift. 

In 2021, President Joe Biden became the first president to formally recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Although the day is still not recognized as a holiday under U.S. federal law, according to the Pew Research Center.

Hsiao said it is important for the university to use Indigenous Peoples’ Day not only to recognize the horrific past of exploitation, but to go beyond acknowledgement. Hsiao hopes the university starts to reveal the history of Indigenous people on campus and its property and thinks about the ongoing work that needs to be done in the Kent community.

The E. Timothy Moore Student Multicultural Center is currently in the process of planning for this year’s Native American Heritage Month (NAHM), Interim Director of the center Ilianna Garrett said in a statement.

Lauren Bischof is a beat reporter. Contact her at [email protected].