With Indigenous Peoples’ Day officially being proclaimed a U.S. holiday for the first time by President Joe Biden, the day has been recognized by many communities for over two decades.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is traditionally observed on the second Monday of October — the same day as Columbus Day — as an acknowledgment of Christopher Columbus’s controversial “discovery” of America. It is a recognition that the lives and cultures of the peoples’ whose land he claimed deserve to be equally celebrated.
As a newer holiday, Americans are finding ways to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples’ Day. For Hamden, the recognition of the native Quinnipiac tribe, which first inhabited the Greater New Haven area, has been commemorated through smaller, individual ways.
The Hamden Public Library has a page dedicated to the day, sharing resources about the lives of the Indigenous people of Connecticut.
While private schools in Hamden like Sacred Heart Academy opted to close the school and cancel all activities for the day, the school closure is not specifically for the observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but also includes Columbus Day as a part of their observance. All Hamden public schools were open on Oct. 11.
Quinnipiac University also remained open for operations on Indigenous Peoples’ Day. However, class cancellations are not equivalent to actual activities that honor the culture and lives of indigenous peoples’.
The university itself has been making efforts to take responsibility and ownership for its name.
As a part of their 10-Point-Plan from Spring 2021, Quinnipiac included “Indigenous Recognition” and steps towards an official land acknowledgment as well as collaboration with student organizations like the Indigenous Student Union.
“At that point, we knew that this wasn’t just a one-year focus,” said Sean Duffy, the executive director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute. “This now is a long-term project that we need to work towards, land acknowledgment. And we had learned enough to realize that most of the scholarship in this area, and all of our native consultants were telling us that Quinnipiac had more work to do.”
Duffy has been involved with the Institute’s Indigeneity Initiative, which was created prior to Quinnipiac’s 10-Point-Plan.
“It was like a dream come true when, you know, from the top-down the administration adopted a land acknowledgment as one of the ten steps,” Duffy said. “But that’s where it stopped in terms of upper administration. And what we really need, I think, in order to move forward, is for the upper administration to start reaching out to the native people of our region.”
The Indigenous Student Union has been innovative when it comes to the way Quinnipiac students can observe the holiday this Monday — by extending the observances for the entire week.
Indigenous Peoples’ Week began on Monday, Oct. 11, and will end on Friday, Oct. 15, with different events taking place each day during the afternoon. While some events are accessible via Zoom, others will take place on Quinnipiac’s campus.
The first event will focus on speaker Adam Soulor, the chairman of the Mohegan Youth Council, and will feature a celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day and what it means him.
It marks a week of opportunities for the Quinnipiac and Hamden communities to participate in the celebration and reflection of the holiday and gather a further understanding of the experiences of Indigenous people.
To learn about Quinnipiac University’s Indigenous Student Union, find more information on their Instagram page or by emailing kmtantaquidgeon@qu.edu.