Indigenous Peoples' Day
Preparing Lessons
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is Monday, October 11. This day reminds us to set aside time to honor all Indigenous communities and people in Washington State, the United States, and around the world. Indigenous People’s Day originated in South Dakota as “Native American Day” in 1989. In Washington State, the City of Seattle was first to declare the second Monday of October Indigenous People’s Day in 2014. Olympia, Spokane, and Bainbridge Island joined in 2016, followed by Port Angeles and Tacoma in 2019. As of this time last year, over 130 cities and seven states across the country celebrated Indigenous People’s Day on the second Monday of October.
We are often taught about Indigenous history as though Indigenous People no longer live among us, when in fact, we all recreate, work, learn, and live together on native land. Even before Pacific Education Institute (PEI) became an official organization, an important foundation of our work was centering our partnerships with Indigenous tribes and leaders across the state. Our founding Executive Director, Lynne Ferguson, worked with several Indigenous partners in the late 1980s to produce and publish The Indians of Washington and the Environment, which helps “students gain an awareness of tribal ways of life through exploration of historical and contemporary interactions with the natural world and non-Indian people.” Several years ago, we participated in the creation and publication of the Shadow of the Salmon resource guide to accompany the video that follows a young Indigenous man as he learns about the history and environmental legacy of the Pacific Northwest. Most recently, we have partnered with tribes across the state to incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing throughout our ClimeTime Solutions Oriented Learning Storylines.
On Monday, October 11, PEI will take time to continue our personal learning journeys, as well as our collective growth as an organization, by expanding our Indigenous knowledge. We have created a collection of resources and guiding questions that will support that process. We invite you to peruse these resources and follow the guiding questions yourself. They are designed to support any individual in their learning journey, regardless of where they are on their path.
If you are interested in learning more about how to incorporate our teaching materials into lesson plans for this upcoming Indigenous Peoples’ Day, please feel free to connect with your Regional Coordinator for support. They will be happy to connect you with locally relevant and place-based materials that will expand yours and students’ knowledge of Indigenous history, culture, and ways of knowing.
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