For those who chose to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Randall’s Island Monday, the celebration was not just an alternative to Columbus Day; rather, it served to be an acknowledgment of truth, endurance, and survival for Native Americans.
Organizers transformed a patch of field just outside of Icahn Stadium into a homage to Indigenous culture, complete with tipis, stalls, wood fires, and traditional ceremonies and rituals. Indigenous people from across the country and world gathered there on Oct. 12 to share their own history and heritage.
“The simple fact that we’re able to gather and still have our language, our culture, is a testament to survival. Because Columbus came here to enslave indigenous populations, to rape, pillage, and massacre them so much so that he was taken back to Spain as a criminal and put in chains,” founder of the annual event Cliff Matias told amNewYork. “Almost every indigenous culture, people have a similar history of colonization, being brutalized, raped, land taken.”
Monday’s event began with a water ceremony that saw people from across the globe bring containers of their own local water and slowly pour it into the East River. This longstanding ritual — taking place just after sunrise — includes prayer and song to pay tribute to water as a life-giving, spiritual force.
The water ceremony evoked discussions around the destruction of indigenous homeland, such as the pipeline at Standing Rock, which aroused emotions over lost tribes.
“I definitely felt tears flowing, and I always hear my mom and my grandma say: ‘No, let your tears go. Let those tears flow. They ground us to the creator, and they ground us to the Earth, and they connect us back to ourselves,” Sutton King said. “Those tears are just a remembrance of all that has been lost.”
Raymond Kingfisher of Montana’s Northern Cheyenne Tribe sang a Native American church song, which was composed by his late brother.
“So it was a pleasure being here, and I could feel the prayers,” Kingfisher said. “It’s a powerful feeling that needs to happen, and the change that’s taking place throughout the world, and this is one of the things that is a major issue about this holiday, Columbus Day. So we want it to be changed to Indigenous Peoples Day.”
Getting to the ceremony’s 12-year anniversary was no easy task. Matias said that originally the city attempted to persuade them to move the festivities to a different date, something Matias refused. He pledged to continue holding it on the second Monday of October as long as the holiday is also recognized as Columbus Day.
Still, he said he believed he did have a minor victory since Mayor Zohran Mamdani chose not to attend the Columbus Day parade.
“We do commend him as being the first mayor to say no to the parade and why he’s saying no. So that’s huge. But you know, we want him to take the next step — not next year, not the year after, but right now — take the next step and show up in unison with the indigenous,” Matias said.
