Oct 8, 2015 - Portland City Council Passes Indigenous Peoples’ Day Resolution

The Portland City Council has unanimously passed a resolution designating the second Monday on October as Indigenous Peoples Day, the Federal holiday Columbus Day.

“We’ve been here for hundreds of thousands of years, and we’ve been shy about telling our own story. I think that has led the public to have a lot of interest in what we do, the history of the Native Americans has been overlooked and undercelebrated. We’ve been working hard to tell our story and the story of all Native Americans, not just ours, and this is just one more movement toward getting that accomplished.” ~Reyn Leno, the tribal chairman Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde

Portland joins Seattle and Minneapolis who passed Indigenous Peoples’ Day resolutions last year in addition to Bellingham and Olympia WA, Saint Paul, Grand Rapids, Traverse City, Mich and Newstead, NY who passed similar resolutions.

South Dakota passed “Native American Day” in 1990 to be celebrated on the second Monday on October. In 1992, Berkeley, CA city council passed an Indigenous Peoples’ Day resolution to replace Columbus Day.

Grassroots movements continue across Turtle Island to abolish Columbus Day on the local level.