Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Stella asked if I could help her with a project she was interested in. Then she explained that she was a commissioner on the local Human Rights commission. I know Stella from her attending water ceremony weekly.

She explained that she had spoken to many people in the community and wasn't able to get any assistance in putting together a recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day in the area.

We talked about how many people still celebrate Columbus Day in this part of the country, and that they are not interested in celebrating the people who were responsible for taking Columbus Day away.

Well, that may or may not be true. It may have been people like Stella, who thought that was a good idea after reading and hearing about all of the things Christopher Columbus was involved in.

As we talked, I told her about a curriculum that I have been training on since 2009. She became interested and she asked if I may talk about a module we train on of Native American contributions.

Once she had someone willing, she went to MaCrostie Art Center, and they are closed on Indigenous People's Day. It's a holiday and businesses close on holidays.

They do, however want us to come in during Native American month in November. That is scheduled. We will focus more on art in its many forms for that presentation.

Stella is one determined woman though so she proceeded on. The college told her that we could do our presentation for Indigenous People's Day over the lunch hour in their auditorium.

That sounded perfect, so Stella made a flyer and got on an agenda to get the approval of the Human Rights Commission.

We are scheduled for two presentations in our community in recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day in October, and Native American month in November.

The flyer above had some AI art that the Art Gallery didn't approve of. They have a policy of no AI art for their fliers. They will create the fliers for the event in November. The flier above was approved by the college and the Human Rights Commission.

The presenters will speak about food contributions, some wood items will be introduced in a show and tell format, and wild rice will be a topic. The three of us will each have about 20 minutes, and because we have trained together for many years it should be no problem.

Devery works as a professor at the Red Lake college and lives in Bemidji, Minnesota. George lives in Ball Club, on the Leech Lake reservation, and works for the state in caring for artifacts that are found most often when the roads or land is being dug into.

George does harvest wild rice and will share some about that. I am retired and train primarily counselors and therapists who are working with Native American people. I will speak more to the module in the Native American curriculum that the three of us train from.