Indigenous Peoples Day events planned to put focus on Native American community

MILLCREEK — In planning the first Indigenous Peoples Day event in Millcreek, set for Monday, officials in the locale aimed to put the spotlight on the first people to inhabit the state.

“We think that the Indigenous population is a staple in Utah and important to Utah’s history, and we want to highlight that,” said Rachel Nasse, community life events manager for the city. The Goshute, Ute and Shoshone people, she said, first inhabited the area that is now Millcreek.

Indeed, it was a deliberate decision by Millcreek officials to focus activities this coming Monday — Columbus Day, per U.S. code — on the Indigenous population rather than Christoper Columbus, the Italian explorer and Columbus Day namesake. Columbus Day, Nasse said, “belongs to the Indigenous natives and it should be celebrated as Indigenous Peoples Day.”

Whether the second Monday in October should be acknowledged as Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day has been a point of hot debate across the United States for years. U.S. code calls it Columbus Day in defining the 11 annual federal holidays. But Native Americans and their advocates have increasingly laid claim to the day as Indigenous Peoples Day as a rebuff of the violence and displacement Indigenous people of the Americas faced in the wake of Columbus’ Oct. 12, 1492, landing in what was then called the New World.

Columbus’ 1492 arrival at a Caribbean island spurred subsequent forays to the Western Hemisphere by European explorers “that started the slave trade and the exploitation of the Indigenous people,” said Carl Moore. Moore, leader of a Native American advocacy group called PANDOS, is helping organize the Millcreek event.

The Salt Lake City Council passed a resolution declaring Oct. 14 this year as Indigenous Peoples Day, the same as it has done in recent years. At the same time, a handful of events focused on the Native American community are planned in the area:

• While not advertised as an Indigenous Peoples Day event, the University of Utah Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City is hosting an Indigenous Art Market on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entry comes with the purchase of a ticket to the museum and activities will also include Native dance and music performances.
• The Urban Indian Center of Salt Lake hosted the Indigenous Peoples Day 5K Run/Walk on Saturday in Draper, though registration is closed. “We will honor this day by coming together with relatives to celebrate and uplift Indigenous histories and cultures through walking, jogging and running,” reads a blurb for the event.
• Brigham Young University’s Museum of Peoples and Cultures in Provo is hosting an event called Tribe of Many Feathers on Monday from 6-8 p.m. It will feature Native American dance performances, crafts, food and more.
• The city of Millcreek is hosting its first-ever Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration on Monday from 6-8 p.m. outside the Millcreek Commons facility at 1354 E. Chambers Ave. in Millcreek. The free event will feature Native American drumming and dancers and free Navajo tacos.

While the debate simmers among some over whether the second Monday of October should be Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Moore, of Native American and European descent, sides with the Indigenous Peoples Day designation. Columbus Day was originally touted by U.S. officials as marking “the discovery of America” and Moore calls that characterization “misinformation” since Natives were already inhabiting the area.

“It erases the people who were here before him,” Moore said. If it’s Columbus “who discovered (the Americas), then that means we aren’t valid people.”

Last year, President Joe Biden, meanwhile, took a middle approach, declaring Oct. 9, 2023, in separate proclamations as Indigenous Peoples Day and Columbus Day.

Biden’s Indigenous Peoples Day proclamation, is meant to “show our gratitude for the myriad contributions (Native Americans) have made to our world and renew our commitment to respect tribal sovereignty and self-determination.”

Biden’s Columbus Day proclamation makes no mention of the “discovery” of the Americas, but rather honors the contributions of Columbus and Italian Americans. The Columbus Day designation aims to celebrate “the heritage of Italian Americans, whose hands helped build our nation and whose hearts have always carried faith in the American Dream.”