OF
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY

A Documentary History
of the Origin and Development of
Indigenous Peoples Day

curated by
John Curl

 

1. The Geneva Conference, 1977

2. The Encuentro of the Condor and Eagle, 1990

3. RESISTANCE 500 & the first Berkeley Indigenous Peoples Day 1991-1992

4. The first Indigenous Peoples Day Pow Wow 1993

In 1992 Berkeley, California became the first city in the world to change October 12 from Columbus Day into Indigenous Peoples Day. In the following years, Santa Cruz, Sebastopol, Nevada City, California, and Madison (Dane County), Wisconsin, did likewise. In 2014 both Seattle and Minneapolis made that transformation. The state of South Dakota celebrates Native American Day on October 12. Indigenous Peoples Day is gaining momentum and growing into a national movement.

The strength behind the movement springs from the resurgence of Native peoples; from the exposure of the true history behind the Columbus mythology; from the deep yearnings of all caring people to move beyond the destructive culture of domination, exploitation, and greed, and to leave for our seventh generation grandchildren a peaceful, just, balanced, sustainable living world.

All movements for social and environmental justice start somewhere, and are fed by the generous contributions of numerous hands and minds. This series of documentary histories will attempt to compile some of the milestones along the way of the Indigenous Peoples Day movement, and give many of the people who made contributions a bit of the credit they richly deserve.

This is a work in progress, and we will attempt to fill in and rectify its omissions and errors as the work progresses.