October 12, 2022

Photo by Kate Redmond and Crystal Ashike

Area residents celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day in Durango

By Kate Redmond

The city showed their lack of awareness of Indigenous Peoples day with a tone-deaf facebook post. They quickly took it down, but activists say this is exactly why the unofficial holiday is needed.

A small group of about 30 people marched through downtown to Buckley Park in Durango to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day. Though many Colorado municipalities recognize it as a holiday, the State has failed to pass a resolution making it official.

Transcript

Kate Redmond: Yesterday used to be known as Columbus Day. But as the true scope of crimes committed against Indigenous People by European Colonists have come to light, many communities are turning their back on this holiday. Yesterday at Buckley Park in Durango, a small crowd of about 30 people celebrated a new holiday that recognizes Native peoples' resilience.

Bennett: We’re here, and we’re not going away, and Indigenous Peoples Day speaks to the importance of our existence and our dignity and our humanity

Durango resident Kirbie Bennett of the Dineh’ tribe was one of the speakers.

Bennett: Earlier this morning, the City of Durango on their Fb page posted about “Happy Columbus Day”. An hour later the city took that post down and put one up acknowledging Indigenous Peoples Day. Even that event speaks to the importance of why Indigenous Peoples Day needs to be recognized. Even though there’s a resolution here in the city, in the State, codifying that, there’s still blind spots among people in power.

In 2020, Colorado abolished Columbus day as a state holiday. Efforts to officially establish indigienous people’s day have failed.

For KSUT, I’m Kate Redmond.

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