Opinion | Op-Eds

Why Columbia needs to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day

By Elisabeth McLaughlin / Columbia Daily Spectator
By Abigail Hickman • October 30, 2018 at 3:08 AM

The Native American Council of Columbia University has begun a new initiative to receive University recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. On October 8, we tabled from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Sundial and asked students and community members to sign a petition which we will present to the Columbia Board of Trustees this upcoming summer. To date, we have collected 1,748 signatures, a number which grows every day. Although Columbia does not recognize Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we believe that University recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day would demonstrate a much-needed commitment to supporting Indigenous students at a University named after a symbol of manifest destiny and after Christopher Columbus, a man infamous for the genocide of the Taíno.

We use Indigenous Peoples’ Day and not Indigenous People’s Day, since Indigenous cultures

are not a monolith. The ethnic and linguistic diversity of the thousands of tribes which exist on the Northern and Southern American continents is greater than the linguistic and ethnic diversity of Europe. By recognizing Indigenous peoples rather than Indigenous people, we not only celebrate Indigenous tribal nations but also their idiosyncrasies and diversity.

This year we decided to follow in the footsteps of those who successfully advocated for the installation of the Lenape plaque in front of John Jay Hall and craft a proposal to be presented to the Board of Trustees. Just as the Lenape plaque recognizes the Lenni Lenape and constitutes a concrete Indigenous space, we hope that Indigenous Peoples’ Day will be a day of Indigenous consciousness on campus.

However, we cannot do this on our own. For the past few weeks, members of NAC have been reaching out to various student groups, asking for their formal support. We will continue reaching out to individual students, student groups, and student governments until the school year ends and the time comes for us to submit our final proposal.

While asking Columbia to honor Indigenous Peoples’ Day might not seem significant to some, establishing a day such as this will impact the Indigenous community on campus greatly. During our tabling, a man asked why our initiative was important. He said he believed that there were more important things for our community to focus on. It’s true there are systemic issues which affect Indian Country; however, it is NAC’s belief that in order to galvanize widespread support for those issues, we must impart a greater understanding of the systemic discrimination and marginalization of Indigenous peoples in our country, which persists today. Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a much-needed step in building that understanding and expanding Indigenous consciousness. Furthermore, if observing such a day is only “symbolism,” as the man at our tabling event asserted, then it should not be that difficult of a symbol for the Columbia board of trustees to embrace.

The Indigenous Peoples’ Day initiative is not just to receive University recognition and to increase our visibility among the general student body, though both of these motives are important. The initiative also intends to bring Indigenous students closer together. After our tabling event, I checked my social media pages and saw Indigenous students on campus post about their pride in themselves and their heritage. I saw a few of my ᏣᎳᎩ cousins, some of whom never or rarely come to NAC, post about how no entity on Earth, historical or present, can ever take away who they are from them. If our tabling effort and campaign for Indigenous Peoples’ Day can inspire this affirming pride among our community, it is well worth it.

In the Cherokee Nation, there is a concept called ᎦᏚᎩ (pronounced “gadugi”). ᎦᏚᎩ is the idea that we can come together and work as one to make a new harvest—something greater and better than ourselves. NAC’s initiative to receive University recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day provides Columbia’s Indigenous community, which has historically been overlooked in all aspects of campus living, with the opportunity to reignite the sacred fire which burns in our blood. That sacred fire, the spirits of those who suffered and died so that we could attend a world-renowned university named after our historical oppressor, should never be lost in our community. By championing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Columbia will allow that unique flame to take center stage, allowing the Indigenous student body to join hands with our greater campus community for the construction of a new hearth.

I invite the Columbia community to continue to support our Indigenous Peoples’ Day petition and also to participate in our upcoming programming this November, where we will host events for Native American Heritage Month to learn about Indigenous pedagogies. We also invite you to support the Ivy Native Council Fall Summit.


In Native American Council, we often joke that we are all “cousins by choice.” Though we all come from different nations, some separated by a distance greater than the entire length of Europe, we all share a common appreciation of our land and cultures. We possess an unbreakable bond, one that is forged by an undying love for our peoples. There is no force on campus that can stop our struggle for recognition for our community—our family away from family and our home away from home. We speak in many tongues but have a common language, a voice which speaks for the oppressed and asks for recognition of those who have suffered.

If you’re interested in hosting an Indigenous student for the Ivy Native Council Fall Summit, visit here. The executive board of Native American Council can be contacted at nac.columbia@gmail.com.

The author is a sophomore in Columbia College studying political science and anthropology. She is the co-political chair of Native American Council and is originally (and proudly) from Norman, Oklahoma, located in the Chickasaw Nation.

To respond to this op-ed, or to submit an op-ed, contact opinion@columbiaspectator.com.

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