Indigenous Peoples’ Day was celebrated nationwide on the 2nd Monday of October in the U.S. by cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco; the holiday is in formal replacement of Christopher Columbus Day. Last Thursday, Stan State students held a celebration for Indigenous Peoples’ Day in John Rogers Faculty Development Center (FDC) honoring the heritage of indigenous people around the world, but also highlighting the pain, violence and enslavement endured by indigenous ancestors because of the impact of colonialism.  

Dr. Cueponcaxochitl Sandoval, a Professor for the Ethnic Studies Department who was key in the planning and organization of this event. This event was organized to inform students and the community that Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not only to honor the ancestors native to the Americas, but to acknowledge our own ancestral roots.

“I hope that this event will acknowledge and highlight that everyone is indigenous somehow from some part of the world,” said Sandoval. “Remember who you are. I hope that students and the community are not only inspired by indigenous heritages but are inspired to learn about their own ancestral heritage[s].”  

Sandoval explained that students can consciously start to make this shift from celebrating colonialism to honoring indigenous people and their sacrifices.

“Celebrating Columbus Day as a discovery of America perpetuates present-day colonialism & cultural genocide,” said Sandoval. “Although settler colonialism attempted to kill us off, our genetic memory is alive and well and we need to reactivate [it].”                                                                         

“How do we do this? Be curious about your ancestral knowledge; ask elders, visit places of your people, read about your people and learn how they ate & how our food practices have changed overtime,” said Sandoval.

We also asked Dr. Sandoval what Indigenous Peoples’ Day means for not only students but the community and what can we do to educate ourselves further about our own indigenous heritage.  

“The purpose of Indigenous Peoples Day is for people to reclaim [their] languages, lands, foods and cultures [in order] to retell our stories. The planting and harvesting of food carries stories and brings knowledge,” said Sandoval. “By redeveloping a relationship with food, it will help us better understand our ancestral knowledge.”

Stan State also hosted the Hummingbird Singers at this event, a native group of drummers with their lead singer Brian Elliot.

“It means a lot because it’s representing our ancestors when we come here and when we walk the earth and telling people that we’re still here, we’re still alive today,” said Elliot. “I celebrate it every year, I celebrate it every day. I celebrate it every day because every day I use my culture, every day. And every day I wake up there’s things I do as a singer and from my people my Cherokee people, my Brunka people.”

Elliot also talked about why the Hummingbird dancers participate in events like this one, and why they drum at campuses across the state.

“It [Indigenous Peoples’ Day] shows awareness to show that we’re still here and we get to share our culture and they get to be apart of it and they get to learn,” said Elliot. 

The celebration for Indigenous Peoples’ Day was also a success in part by the students who helped orchestrate it and who were also given a chance to tell their stories and share their experiences.

Stan State students Julian Manjarrez and Jazz Diaz presented a banner to the Ethnic Studies Department titled “Why is Native American Studies Important?” The banner depicts images of indigenous history such as the three sisters (beans, squash and corn), nature before colonization and mother nature, the giver of life & death.

“For a while I’ve been wanting to design a piece like this, and it kind of stems from almost trying to understand my history and also in a sense decolonizing that,” said Diaz. “Although it’s not just focused on [indigenous peoples from] North America we have it tied together as kind of a snake flow.”
This year’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day marks the second year that Stan State has participated in this event, celebrating and honoring indigenous peoples across the world, including those close to home. The event coordinators hope that this event continues to bring understanding to the students of Stan State and the community of Turlock, and brings awareness to the sacrifices indigenous people made and those that were here before us.