Public Invited to Duluth’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day Celebration
The City of Duluth will host a celebration of Indigenous Peoples' Day on October 14 on the steps of City Hall and the public is invited.
According to organizers, hand drummers will welcome guests at noon, which will be followed by several speakers including Mayor Larson, Babette and Skip Sandman, Shawn Carr, and Nick Smith. At the conclusion of the event the group will walk to Gichi-ode’ Akiing where a round dance will take place.
Indigenous Peoples' Day continues to replace Columbus Day in cities across the United States. According to Smithsonian.com:
In 1977 participants at the United Nations International Conference on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations in the Americas proposed that Indigenous Peoples’ Day replace Columbus Day. Indigenous Peoples’ Day recognizes that Native people are the first inhabitants of the Americas, including the lands that later became the United States of America. And it urges Americans to rethink history.
In 1990, South Dakota was the first state to make the official change from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day.