Indigenous Peoples Day has become national movement, beloved Kentucky tradition | Opinion

Indigenous Peoples Day is unquestionably a growing American tradition, a flourishing national mission, an unfolding Kentucky passion.

A celebration of the history, culture, and the many varied contributions of Indigenous peoples, this holiday also addresses the adverse impacts of colonialism, while repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery. Delegates to the United Nations International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas first introduced the concept of Indigenous Peoples Day as a national holiday in 1977. The first city in the United States to pass an Indigenous Peoples Day proclamation was Berkeley, California in 1992. Since then, more than 220 cities in the United States have passed proclamations recognizing this holiday. Furthermore, numerous counties, school districts, and states now officially celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day. In Kentucky alone, there have been 36 city, county, and statewide proclamations adopted since 2017 — more than any other state since the movement began in the US in 1992.

Kentucky’s passion for the recognition of this holiday is exceptional. Yet, our Commonwealth’s history of indigenous peoples is unique and extraordinary. Contrary to the unfortunate, persistent myth that Kentucky was merely a hunting ground, American Indians have lived here for at least 12,000 years.

That includes Cherokee, Shawnee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Osage, and many other native peoples who lived in permanent communities, achieved impressive engineering feats, and constructed homes — longhouses and palisaded villages. They developed trade routes and built a non-nomadic agrarian society that cultivated corn, beans, squash, tomatoes, and potatoes, all of which were exclusively American crops, unknown to Europeans before contact.

Europeans settlers likely perpetuated the myth that Kentucky was a mere hunting ground to undermine American Indian claims to the land. American Indians did not subscribe to the concept of land ownership as did Europeans, but rather the philosophy of land stewardship.

The vast cultural divide between Indigenous people and Europeans regarding land use was often key to the purposeful misrepresentation and misinterpretation of land cession treaties. One of the most famous examples is the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals negotiated on March 17, 1775, in which Cherokees relinquished land claims to most of present-day Kentucky to the Transylvania Land Company led by speculator Richard G. Henderson of Virginia. This enormous expanse of land was inadvertently exchanged for a mere wagon load of trade goods. This was the largest land cession treaty in the history of the frontier up to that time, and ushered in the era of westward expansion.

The overwhelming success of the Indigenous Peoples Day movement is owed to a wide variety of factors. It is one of the premier issues of our time, the just cause of defending the rights, the true history and cultures, and the preservation of the sacred lands of our original inhabitants. Furthermore, Indigenous Peoples Day recognition is a broadly intersectional issue that includes such powerful universal themes as discrimination, poverty, genocide, environmental protection, decolonization of education, and many other important topics. People from all walks of life are drawn to the beautiful, rich culture including music, dancing, storytelling and visual arts. It is broadly recognized also that we must responsibly educate ourselves and others about the true history of the original inhabitants.

The recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day remains a clarion call that speaks to us of profound and powerful truths. It is the cause that is long overdue. For the many who advocate and celebrate, we are a multitude who dream of a better world, who fervently believe in this just cause revered and beloved by so many. May we stand together once again, and always, to honor Indigenous Peoples Day and the hope that it brings for us all.

Angela Arnett Garner is a long-time Indigenous rights/social justice activist and lifelong Kentuckian.