Community members gathered Monday in Friendship Square to celebrate the third annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
The Moscow City Council voted three years ago to become the first city in Idaho to recognize the day in lieu of Columbus Day.
The celebration, sponsored by the Moscow Human Rights Commission, saw a performance by a Nez Perce drum group, guest speakers and a round dance.
Becky Tallent, a recently retired journalism professor at the UI, helped plan the event through the Moscow Human Rights Commission as the vice chair.
Tallent, of Cherokee heritage, said Moscow’s recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day is extremely important.
“For those of us who are native, it is recognition that we are still here,” said Tallent. “So many people don’t believe we are, so Moscow acknowledging that Natives are still here and that Moscow sits on native land is extremely important to the cultures.”
Kodee Artis, a UI law student and Navajo native, says we can still do a lot more to accommodate Native American tribes.
“Let’s start making movements, let’s start stepping forward and recognizing what this land is built upon, which is genocide and colonization,” said Artis. “A lot of people say it’s [Indigenous Peoples’ Day] about changing history, but it’s not, it’s actually about recognizing our history and legacy.”
The University of Idaho is built on Nez Perce tribe ceded lands and has strong ties to Native American communities across the region with 10 area tribes have memoranda of understanding (MOU) with the university.
In spring 2016, Associated Students University of Idaho passed a resolution establishing Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The student resolution also noted Columbus’ role in enslaving Native Americans and promoting the Columbian Exchange, which led to widespread death and disease.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day recognizes that native people are the first inhabitants of the Americas, and it asks all Americans to reconsider the history of their country from that perspective.
Angela Palermo can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @angelapalermo7