11 Oct 5 Ways to Celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2023

By: Abby Fountain

This year marks the second year Indigenous Peoples’ Day is recognized as a national holiday. Celebrated on October 9th, this holiday invites us to learn, support, and engage with Native American people and organizations in our areas. America’s original residents come from vast and varied cultures, experiences, and ways of life. In addition to state-recognized and non-recognized Native American tribes, there are 574 Federally recognized tribes. Here are a few ways to honor and celebrate Indigenous People. 

Subscribe to a Native American Newspaper

ICT is an independent, non-profit news organization highlighting Native news throughout the Americas and beyond. Its journalists, editors, and staff belong to different Native tribes from around the country, sharing unique perspectives and stories. Subscribe to its weekly newsletter to learn about a Cherokee couple sharing their heirloom seeds or the Klamath River Dam Removal. ICT’s stories remind non-Native Americans that Indigenous communities are not separate from all other societies, uniform in culture, or relics of a pre-settler colonialism past. 

Attend an Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration

So many events in Boulder and beyond showcase the talents, stories, and knowledge of Native Americans. At UNC in Greeley, watch a fantastic hip-hop performance by Frank Waln, a citizen of the Sicagu Lakota Nation, and chow down on Indian tacos from Tocobe. Visit the Dairy Arts Center for Día de los Pueblos Indígenas, an art and activism-centric event highlighting some Native communities from the Sierra Norte region of Puebla, the Highlands of Chiapas in Mexico, and Port au Prince in Haiti. For a complete list of events happening along the Front Range, check this out. 

Get Involved with Native Women’s Wilderness

Local to Boulder, Colorado, Native Women’s Wilderness promotes women of color in marketing campaigns for outdoor companies, educates on Ancestral Lands and the Indigenous People that call these spaces home, celebrates the outdoors, and more. Native Women’s Wilderness also highlights Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), drawing attention to the vast numbers of Native women and girls who have experienced violence in some form or gone missing. Here’s how you can get involved.

Donate

There are countless causes to donate to that support Native communities, including LandBack – a nonprofit group that organizes to reclaim “Indigenous Land back in Indigenous Hands” because this will better repair, revitalize, and protect Mother Nature, traditional ceremonies, food sovereignty, and more. You can donate to Colorado’s local organizations sharing Native American culture, like NCIPA, the Northern Colorado Intertribal Powwow Association or the Native American Rights Fund. 

Learn About the Land We Occupy

Discover the original residents of your home, workplace, or favorite travel destinations. Use Native Land to see just how many Indigenous groups traveled and lived all over what is now the U.S. Learn about land acknowledgements from Andre Bouchard (Kootenai/Ojibwe/Pend d’Oreille/Salish descent) and Raven Trust. 

Admittedly, we’ve just begun learning more about the Native communities on whose land we are guests. Join us in this journey as we determine how to be better collaborators and partners with our Indigenous neighbors going forward.