15 Oct Bay Area Celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day as International Recognition Grows

Tribes from across the country come to the Bay Area to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, which was officially observed Monday. This scene is from a celebration in Berkeley on Sunday. (Ruth Dusseault / Bay City News)

By Ruth Dusseault
Bay City News

Monday was Indigenous Peoples’ Day in California, and the Bay Area recognized it in several ways.

In an early celebration on Saturday, tribes from around the country gathered for a powwow celebration in Berkeley, site of the first Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 1992. The country was preparing that year to celebrate the 500-year anniversary of the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Instead of a Quincentennial Jubilee, the city of Berkeley opted to recognize the contributions and legacy of those who lived here long before Columbus claimed to have discovered America.

Scenes from this year’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day celebration in Berkeley. (Ruth Dusseault / Bay City News)

While Indigenous people around the world are gaining more recognition, Native Americans are among those fighting for the return of ancient artifacts from European museums and various anthropology archives.

“In September, we had a roundtable on repatriation called Bringing Home the Sacred,” said Andrea Carmen, executive director of the International Indian Treaty Council, a global nonprofit that works on Indigenous rights and sovereignty. “We talked about how many human remains, burial items and cultural items are housed at the University of California, Berkeley and several of the campuses of the California state universities,” she said.

The discussion included state and federal representatives who are still working to enforce legislation that’s already on the books for the return of these items.

Carmen said her council is working to create a mechanism at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, for the return of Indigenous peoples’ cultural items and human remains globally.

Carmen also coordinates indigenous peoples’ work with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, where Indigenous people are gaining representation at talks around biodiversity and the legal rights of nature.

Every Aug. 9 commemorates the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. The date was chosen in recognition of the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations held in Geneva in 1982.

In a public statement Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom highlighted that the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles will include the Indigenous sport of lacrosse.

“This showcases Haudenosaunee athletes, descendants of those who invented the game, underscoring the cultural richness that Indigenous traditions bring to modern society,” the statement said.

In January 2018, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors permanently discontinued Columbus Day, officially changing it to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

In San Francisco, this year’s celebration began before dawn, at 4:15 a.m., when ferries departed carrying tribal members and members of the general public to Alcatraz Island. Tribes have marked the day with dance and ritual on the rock, an ancestral land of the Ohlone tribe, since its 19-month occupation by protesters that ended in 1971.

The flyer for the Alcatraz event read, “Commemorating 532 years of indigenous resistance, cultural resiliency and survival in the Americas.”

The day was also celebrated at Yerba Buena Gardens on Monday, which felt like a festival with Native American art, music and vendors.

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