We're Still Here: Why It's Still a Good Day to Be Indigenous
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Yes, even now. Even after what we witnessed this past week when the White House issued a proclamation for Columbus Day and failed to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Even with the return of a presidential administration that has made no secret of its disdain for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. And even though white nationalists continue to grumble at the idea of honoring Indigenous peoples at all—yes, it is still a good day to be Indigenous
Being Indigenous doesn’t depend on who sits in the Oval Office. It doesn’t hinge on whether a president utters the words “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” or if federal websites decide to scrub Native achievements from their pages. Our strength is not defined by visibility in colonial spaces. Our strength comes from something much older, deeper, and more enduring.
We are still here.
Let’s talk about what happened. This past Thursday, the White House only released a proclamation for Columbus Day — nothing for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which has now been recognized in some form by more than 20 states and over 130 cities and towns. That silence was loud. But it wasn’t surprising.
After all, this is the same administration that stormed back into office declaring war on DEI initiatives. Federal agencies began purging mentions of contributions by people of color. Even the Defense Department — prior to renaming itself the Department of War — removed references to the Navajo Code Talkers from its website. It took serious backlash from Indian Country for them to quietly restore those mentions.
And just last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced he would not rescind the Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers who killed as many as 300 Lakota people — most of them unarmed women, children and elders — at the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre. The pattern is clear: This administration will honor those who committed atrocities against Native peoples while erasing the contributions of those who served with distinction.
So no, we weren’t shocked when Indigenous Peoples’ Day was erased at the federal level. But we’re also not deterred. We’ve always had to fight to be seen. And we’ve never needed permission to celebrate ourselves.
Let’s also be clear about something that gets twisted too often in this conversation: Being against honoring Columbus is not the same as being anti-Italian.
The criticism of Columbus is based on truth, not prejudice. His legacy is one of conquest, enslavement and genocide. He did not “discover” America — there were already thriving Indigenous nations across this continent thousands of years before 1492.
What Columbus did do was initiate a wave of violence that forever altered the lives of Native peoples across the Americas. This is not debatable; it is historical fact, documented by scholars, and acknowledged by many — including Italians themselves.
Some Italian Americans have come forward to say they don’t want their cultural pride tied to Columbus. And they shouldn’t have to. Italian heritage can and should be celebrated through figures who reflect the best of that culture — not through a colonizer whose name has become synonymous with suffering in Indian Country. Being against Columbus statues and Columbus Day is not an attack on Italian identity, just as opposing Confederate monuments is not an attack on Southern culture. It’s about aligning public honor with shared values — truth, justice, and respect.
Let’s also reject the false idea that opposing Columbus is anti-American. If anything, it's deeply American to confront the full truth of our history. To question who we celebrate, and why. That’s what “to form a more perfect union” is about. That’s what progress looks like.
Today, we celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day because it tells a more accurate story. It’s a day that recognizes the resilience of Native peoples — the original stewards of this land — and affirms our place in the present and the future, not just the past. But even if this day weren’t on the calendar, we would still be here, still celebrating our cultures, still fighting for our rights, and still loving our people.
Because every day is a good day to be Indigenous.
We carry forward languages that were nearly lost. We raise our children with teachings that go back generations. We protect sacred lands and sacred stories. We organize, vote, protest, create, lead, teach, and thrive. And we do it all while navigating the ongoing realities of colonization, invisibility, and erasure.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not just a counterpoint to Columbus Day—it’s a declaration. A refusal to be erased. A reminder that we are more than what happened to us. We are who we have always been.
So yes, even though the powers that be chose not to recognize us this year, we still recognize ourselves. We always have.
Today and every day, it’s a good day to be Indigenous.
Thayék gde nwéndëmen - We are all related.
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We haven't and can't forget who and what we are.
Why is it so hard for you to understand?
I have complicated feelings about that. I don't mean about Native Americans, First People, Indians or whatever moniker one wishes to use. I mean identifying oneself by one's ancestors. I also don't mean to judge anyone who does so, although my personal view, which I'm about to explain, probably does that. Can't be helped.
To put my view as succinctly as I can, I don't understand how my ancestry has any meaningful relevance to who I am. Or, if I do, I see it as a choice between two different views. One, if my ancestry is relevant, wouldn't that mean I have to adopt their values and morals, their history as defining me? Or is it better that I decide those things for myself and, thus, gaining my identity on my own?
If my ancestry, what portion of it? At some point, my ancestry is not much different from Native Americans. At some point, my ancestors lived much like pre-contact Native Americans, with some differences, such as animals we had access to that Native Americans didn't. But then, technology evolved and we became something different. And, even then, my ancestry is German/Irish. Which am I to choose? What portion of my ancestry am I supposed to identify with?
That said, I understand I'm speaking about myself in relation to my own ancestry. The article, however, is speaking about something a little different. The government favoring one view over another. That's putting it in about the most general terms as possible and not something I agree with. Celebrating Columbus is justified for the exploration he did but not justified for the other aspects that resulted from what he did when he found what he did. Complicated.
In the same sense, we can celebrate Indigenous People's day for the fact they existed, but not everything they did was worthy of celebration. We can celebrate St. Patrick's day for the same, but that doesn't make everything Irish people did worth celebrating. How many Irish people died because they were either Catholic or protestant, for instance? Why would I want to identify with a group that did that? And that's why my feelings about all this are so complicated. Just what are we celebrating and why should our identity be determined by it?
So, in the end, that's how I feel. I don't mean to say that if you feel pride in being NA then you're wrong. I'm simply stating that I don't understand why anyone would take their identity from their heritage. To me, in doing so one is accepting everything about them, both the good and bad, and justifying it. That is a burden I don't want to carry, let alone being able to. I'd rather just be me as determined by my own ideas about what is good and what is bad, what the right way to live is and who I am. That's hard enough without having to carry the weight of what my ancestors thought and did.
It can all be explained simply.
The US and Canadian governments tried to eradicate us. We are still here. That is not that hard to understand. And in that way, we are different from all those other nationalities that you cited.
What do you mean by "eradicate"? Kill all of you or erase your culture? I do not think they intended to kill all of you. I think they tried what every civilization has tried to do. Force integration. You are not unique in that.
Considering human history, I have to ask, in what way are you different? I can't see it. Take the spread of Islam since its inception. The choice was either death or jizya. How is your history different from that? How is it different from Rome imposing its rule on its subject nations and cultures? Ottoman empire? British rule? Persians? In all those cases, you either submitted or died. Or take the Comanche vs Apache. That was a true attempt at eradication.
OK, my turn.
"At some point" - no, the Irish and Germans were/are very different from Native Americans. Example - Native Americans have been on this continent for over 30,000 years practicing the same beliefs, having the same cultures/traditions/heritage, None of the Euro countries can make that claim.
Native Americans have architectural accomplishments that precede the Middle Eastern Summarians/Egyptians/Assyrians/French/German/UK.
Cahokia and Mexico City had populations in the MILLIONS before London attained its 5,000 population in the 900's AD.
(AI generated answer) -
I was raised with daily reminders of my culture/heritage/traditions/customs/spiritual life. You, based on your statement above, were not, which is the primary reason that you " don't understand why anyone would take their identity from their heritage." You were not exposed to it nor did you live and practice what your elders attempted to teach as was I and most Native Americans.
I'd rather just be me as determined by my own ideas about what is good and what is bad, what the right way to live is and who I am. That's hard enough without having to carry the weight of what my ancestors thought and did.
But, your ancestors have already put a bug in your brain about how to choose/make decisions of good/bad/the right way to live/who you are - and you are acting on that "bug". That weight that you are trying to escape is already there and you just have to learn how to accept that knowledge/those experiences to continue - all the while, picking and choosing which knowledge and which experiences are worthwhile based on your ancestors teachings.
Such is the way of the Native Americans I know and associate with.
Just don't close your mind - welcome those "intuitions" from all sources including those of your ancestors - as a source.
That is what you should cherish and practice and you will be "honoring" your/their heritage.
Be proud of what you've been taught - and do the same - pass it forward.
Yeah - "kill the Indian - raise the child" - U.S. and Canadian matra.
Thomas Jefferson, in the Georgia Act of 1802, after he sold well over 1 million acres of Cherokee/Choctaw/Creek/Chickasaw lands to the "new government of Georgia", commented that all the "savages/warmongers/Indians' should all be wiped out so the white people could prosper. Andrew Jackson pushed aside the Supreme Court's Marshall Trilogy rulings stating that the lands belonged to the Indians by forcing, with the use of the military, 37 tribes/nations off their lands and into Indian Land (state of OK before statehood) for over 500,000 tribal members. Sherman??? "The only good Indian is a dead Indian".
When Columbus got lost in 1492, Native American population was between 80 to 120 MILLION. In 1960, that population was 257,350 - per the census. - there's your eradication.
Little Big Horn/Wounded Knee ring a bell??? 352 women, children, old men were MASSACRED because they wanted to get back to their "reservation" to continue their spiritual beliefs with the "Ghost Dance".
Try reading some "stuff" of Vine deLoria. Any of his books will blow a hole in your last paragraph. "Custer Died for Your Sins" would an excellent starter. Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" would be book # 2.
You've got so much more to learn.
Keep learning - don't quit.
Actually, it does have meaningful relevance to who you are in the sense that people will take it into account upon meeting you as a 'first impression' accordingly. Furthermore, you are not solely alone in this world, because you stand on the shoulders of persons in your tribe and family that may (or may not) have left a legacy or 'mark' on society.
Right or wrong, people will respond to what they know about Germans and Irish people (immediately) upon learning about the 'it' in you! (I just did it too when I read your comment).
Of course, you get the fair chance to demonstrate your individual self and character. . . but, the German and Irish heritages in you will still be in there somewhere-even if it is just in others you surround yourself with. . . say, at family functions or social occasions.
Besides this, there is nothing wrong at all with knowing, respecting, disagreeing, with the good or bad that our predecessors brought about while living in their 'lot' of life. We can claim the truth about them. . . and then go about doing better where they failed or delivered 'shortcomings.'
For example, I am African American or if you wish 'American.' I do not have to explain why Africans hack each other to death with machetes. . . why not? Because that is not who I am as a person. I do not have to explain why Africans have issues that are problematic for Africans themselves. But, I can still take pride that somewhere through the ages I am in the lineage of Africans. (And, I have been to an African nation and it felt really good in spirit to be there. It was not my home, nevertheless.)
Also there is the other issue of "we" - the present humanity - stand on the 'shoulders' of those who came before us. Regarding our predecessors we can do one of several things:
That is our individual choice/s.
Finally, we can not make the callous mistake of omission of our ethnic and storied pasts, because history will find us out and expose us for the neglect to own where we once were.
We can not just pretend that our familial lineage does not 'speak' for us in many cases. . . that would be an outright lie.
The full text of what you're quoting is:
You don't convincingly explain why there's a difference. Logically, there must be some point where they are comparable. Asking ChatGPT, the relevant portion of what it returned was:
The first two benchmarks are what I was speaking of. Again, logically, there had to be some point where my ancestors life conditions had to be the same as yours, technologically. What each thought about the reality of their world, that is, how they conducted themselves based on what they thought was applicable isn't relevant as far as I can see. For instance, whether Germanic tribes equivalent to Native American levels of development believed in Odin rather than the Great Spirit doesn't matter as far as I can see. That their day to day lives were comparable, is.
In any case, who reached what benchmark when is not what I was talking about. Rather, regardless of benchmarks, every society, faced with the same or similar pressures, act the same. All societies everywhere, everywhen, followed the same pattern. You can say that NA's never invaded Europe or any other place, but that was due to their technological inability to do so. They certainly invaded who they could, based on their technological ability. The Americas were not some fantasy depiction of bucolic bliss before the arrival of Europeans.
Which brings me back to my point. Personally speaking, I'm German/Irish. More importantly, I'm American. Even so, my identity doesn't come from being American. That's because, in spite of all the good America has done, we've also done terrible things, past and present. The same can be said for NA cultures. I doubt very much you approve of everything your ancestors did.
That said, I am not trying to diss you concerning your pride in being NA. I am simply expressing my lack of understanding of why you and others are, based on my belief that everyone, everywhen, acting exactly the same, which usually isn't very laudable. In fact, I have difficulty with pride relating to anything human.
That said, from documentaries I've seen, NA's (meaning north and south) may not have been as technologically advances as many others, they totally blew away the rest of the world agriculturally. Not all of NA's, but still.
How do you know this? I was raised to think Columbus and Custer were hero's, for instance. That Jefferson and Washington were practically demigods. Everyone wanted to be American and those who didn't were evil and so on. Especially the portion where you say "nor did you live and practice what your elders attempted to teach as was I".
Maybe. But if so, why am I nearly the polar opposite of my father's beliefs? Why do I not do or believe what those around me believe? Why is it that I do not feel pride (nor shame) in being an American? Why do I not excuse the terrible things we did to NA's?
But perhaps you mean that I wasn't taught what it meant to be German or Irish? If so, I agree. No one in my life taught me about such things. But... I remember my childhood. I remember being fascinated and enthralled by Nazi Germany. I loved the uniforms. I loved the pageantry. I loved the idea of the nation being wholeheartedly devoted to a seemingly, at the time, noble goal. I loved their apparent invincibility. Right up until I watched an episode of "The world at war" that depicted what the Nazis did to Jews.
I cannot adequately describe that night. I was laying on the carpet of the living room, most of my family behind me. Tears streamed down my face as my fantasy was crushed by reality. I had, until that night, considered the Nazis as simply a matter of a difference of opinion. That night, I saw the images of the concentration camps. I saw the bodies piled up like cordwood. I learned about the gas chambers.
From there, I learned that the westerns were mostly one-sided views of what really happened concerning NA's. Sanitized. I later learned that those who wrote the constitution didn't live by it when it came to slavery. From there, I learned to look at history in a new light. Not just ours, but everyone's. In every case, I saw the same thing. People justifying the same evils we've always committed. Doesn't matter where I looked. Including NA's.
It is for that reason why I refuse to get my identity from my culture, from my skin color or the past. It all turns out the same. It doesn't matter what my ancestors did, it matters what I do.
If you mean the weight of history, I do accept it, while denying responsibility for it. Because I accept it is the reason I refuse ancestry as identifying me. I don't care if my father made it his life's mission to kill every NA he could, it would not identify me, let alone those who came before him. My identity comes from what I believe and, more importantly, by how I act. Such is not based on my ancestors' teachings. If it were, I'd still be Catholic.
I have no use for pride and I do all I can to avoid it. I mean that in the most literal sense I can manage. Pride blinds. If I were proud of what I've been taught by my father, for instance, hate would be my primary emotion. Hate would be my primary way of viewing the world. I prefer humility. Through humility, I see what mankind really is. Evil in nature but struggling to be good.
Yep. Totally do not deny this. The question is, how does this relate to what I said? Did anything I said defend what you mention here?
A bit misleading. 90% of NA (north and south) deaths subsequent to European contact were due to disease, not design. Furthermore, your stats start out with total population for both continents but end on only the US.
Same thing as above. Did anything I've said previously even attempt to defend this? No. Rather, it is justification as to why I wrote what I did. Why should I get my identity from people who did such things? What about that should give me pride in my heritage? Not everything they did was bad. Some of it was good. Even so, why should what they did, what they thought, determine who I am? Why should I not determine that for myself, based off of not simply my ancestors, but everyone everywhere? Learn the lessons taught by every peoples and decide what's best?
Think so? I wonder what an Apache writer would have to say about what the Comanche did to them? Regardless of how they may have justified it, do you really think no NA's did something exactly the same against other NA's? In any case, if you think that blows a hole in my last paragraph I would suggest that you don't understand what I wrote.
That's the thing, though. Once I rid myself of pride, the necessity of having to justify my ancestry, I realized that everyone, everywhen did the same sort of evils, regardless of how they justified it. No matter how I tried to put it, it always came down to "yeah, but you guys did this to us". Problem with that is, while the specifics being discussed may be true for a particular instance, such as what Europeans and, later, the US did to NA's, it doesn't address the offended's past. That is, what they have done to others. When I look at the totality of everyone's past, I see that no one is innocent. Everyone is guilty of whatever they accuse the other of, at some point in their own past or even present.
So, again. I'm not trying to intentionally diss you for your pride in being NA. But I can't pretend I feel the same way. I don't have pride in my heritage because the societies my ancestry comes from, and the people who made them up, were just people. People plagued by the same evils that every single population group, including yours, have been plagued with since recorded history and beyond.
That may seem depressing, and it did for me, too, at first. But in the end, it was liberating. I get to be who I want to be, or try, anyway, without concern or burden by what came before. I don't have to be what Irish or German culture or history says I should be, nor American. I get to determine that on my own. Doesn't that make at least a little bit of sense to you?
It should be the same with you, in my opinion. Do you support slavery? NA's had slaves. Do you think it's okay to invade and claim for yourself someone else's land/country? NA's did that, too. Attempted genocide? Yep. NA's tried that.
None of what I am saying is an attempt to justify what one did to another because they're guilty, too. Rather, I'm saying that taking pride in one's ancestors doesn't make sense to me because there's really not much distinction between ours and another's. We all suffer the same evil inclinations. We all act on them. The alternative, it seems to me, is that if I meet a German citizen, I have to relate to that person in terms of Germany's Nazi past. How is that fair or even right?
Lastly, I want to reiterate that I'm not trying to diss you. I'm expressing my personal views on the subject of identifying oneself by associating with one's ancestors. If you take pride in your heritage, that's not for me to judge. I know that expressing my opinion may seem to say otherwise, but I truly recognize it as my own opinion, not incontrovertible fact. I'm simply expressing that, given what life has taught me, I don't understand it. Or, rather, I do, but that I don't see why others don't see it the way I do, given the evidence.
You make an excellent point. As I understand it, you are saying that a person's race should not be essential to who they are. We are all Americans and who we are as individuals is what is essential to who we are.
I think you brought some light to this conversation. May people learn from it.
That is kind of strange to read when we know that conservatives are RELYING ON their FOREFATHERS as FOUNDERS of the country to claim 'ownership' and their place of belonging here!
And you answered all your questions/concerns to boil down to that one point - choice.
You have the "choice" to determine what part, if any, of your heritage/culture/traditions/spirituality to believe - as does everyone else.
My "choice" is to honor my heritage as a Native American. All I ask is that I be allowed to have that choice by others and also request that others respect the fact that that is my "choice" - not theirs.
AS I wrote to Vic below at 1.1.9, it is "convenient" that conservatives support the president that REMEMBERS Columbus Day but ignores Native American Day in the same setting. Why do they choose to do it? One looming reason: Columbus is the reason Europeans arrived and 'FOUNDED' this nation (already occupied) we have farther grown to be.
Even today, we read and hear conservatives express how their forefathers brought about "a new nation" and this nation laying the groundwork for this placement and inheritance they have (and fight to keep) in it at rallies, public events, and in bulletins.
Your identity comes from what you believe - and you use that belief identity to JUDGE others as unfit to the same treatment under law that you receive. . .seeing that you support suppression of individuals and groups you consider evil, even - demons in flesh. (Let's talk plain now.)
Thus, you are not your own man. Your belief ties you to something ancient and dogmatic! Thus, in several ways you are beholden to the Past. As you have connected yourself to the past for the benefits it grants you as a part of a collective. . . whether you know and accept it or not.
And we have yet to discuss how conservatives use the Constitution of the United States (a conservative document overall) to control and suppress progress. . .by not allowing congress to 'advance' amendments to it appropriately to free all of us.
Totally on board with that. Hope you had a nice Indigenous Peoples Day.
My comment had nothing to do with Columbus Day. Drakkonis made an excellent point. (It is one that MLK famously made.)
Drakkonis' comment (that you chose to comment on) mentions Columbus and "ancestors." So. . . .
Thanks for posting this 1st. I would also like to take a moment to remember Kavika. This is the first Indigenous Day without him.
And I miss my mentor tremendously.
Thank you Perrie
Arvo 1st...yes same here...
Miss his conversations and his presence, even though I am on the other side of the world..🥀
Kavika was a great man. He is deeply missed but well-remembered.
KAVIKA!
This is an excellent article.
NA's were here going back a long ways, but then were conquered by a stronger group. It's been going on all over the world since antiquity. More recent NA tribes and nations actions were not all that peaceful either
Stop the Insanity!
Yes, we now know that the groups Columbus encountered were invaders from South America who pretty much wiped out the groups who were occupying those lands previous to them. That group left only a very small surviving genetic footprint.
Yes, with everything TRUE taken into account. . . it does not change the fact that NA were here when English nationals came and displaced (overran) them!
Been waiting for that - "Whataboutism" - thanks Sean.
Those would have been the Arawak - pretty brutal folks. Come to town, kill and eat the men and keep the women as wives, daughters, slaves. They advanced from South America, most likely from the Brazil interiors.
Of the others, most of them are called Tiano and they were divided into three/four social strata
At the time of first contact between Europe and the Americas, the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean included the Taíno of the northern Lesser Antilles , most of the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas ; the Kalinago of the Lesser Antilles ; the Ciguayo and Macorix of parts of Hispaniola ; and the Guanahatabey of western Cuba . The Kalinago have maintained an identity as an Indigenous people, with a reserved territory in Dominica .
There was a vid on YouTube I've been trying to find. Talked about what Farming was like in the Americas at the time Columbus made contact. It was really amazing. They were like a farming superpower. Wish I could find it again and post it here. And all of it without any significant animal labor.
Greg - a little AI info regarding "human Sacrifices" -
Continued to be practiced in some societies, such as the Aztecs and Maya, until European colonization, with Aztec rituals sometimes involving large-scale sacrifices.
Nope, no mention of sacrifices in North America.