Tribal nations, Native students and community groups held celebrations across Oregon and Turtle Island to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day on Oct. 9.
First officially recognized by the state of Oregon in 2021, the day serves as a celebration of centuries of resilience, resistance and cultural preservation.
Portland State University
College campuses across Oregon played host to a variety of events honoring Indigenous People’s Day as student groups held space for Indigenous community members.
Indigenous artists, entrepreneurs and craft vendors came together to showcase their wares at the PSU Native American Student and Community Center.
The event bustled with vendors and customers as a live DJ played for the crowd.
Customers selected from a wide variety of wares, including Oglala Lakota artist and drummer Adrian Larvey’s paintings, dentalium jewelry from Rebecca Kirk of Resting Warrior Face Apparel (who attended two events in one day to sell her apparel), fresh baked goods from Mildred’s Sweet Treats and short stories by Shoshone-Bannock-Nez Perce storyteller and elder Ed Edmo, who also appeared at multiple events.
Clackamas Community College
Clackamas County hosted its second-ever Indigenous People’s Day celebration at Clackamas Community College, where attendees enjoyed a flute performance and storytelling by local Indigenous elders.
Local favorite Sister’s Frybread fed attendees with frybread tacos while Edmo, who was raised at Celilo Falls and appeared at PSU earlier in the day, brought out his puppet sidekick Auntie Coyote to share stories that teach lessons of getting along with others, respecting elders and those with disabilities.
“We put (disabled) people out front, we’re not ashamed of them — we honor them,” Edmo said.
Southern Oregon University
In Ashland, community members and the Native American Student Union at Southern Oregon University, or SOU, celebrated the holiday across two days of events.
The Oregon Shakespeare Festival hosted a performance of “Where We Belong” by Madeline Sayet, offering complimentary tickets to those who self-identified as Indigenous. The play focuses on themes of Indigenous community, colonialism and belonging.
At SOU, the Indigenous People’s Day celebration held deep significance.
The day began as several hundred community members gathered for a salmon feast outside the student union.
A historic moment occurred during the celebration when SOU President Ricky Bailey announced SOU was awarding its first-ever Distinguished Career Service Award to a beloved Native faculty member, David West, director emeritus of the Native American studies program at SOU and citizen of Potawatomi nation.
An emotional West expressed his appreciation for the unexpected award, as the crowd cheered and applauded, shouting their thanks at the professor.
“I’m blown away,” West told the crowd. “I’m deeply moved.”
Before the award presentation, representatives and government officials from the nine federally recognized tribal nations sharing geography with Oregon each presented the university with their nation’s tribal flag to hang in the atrium.
Each governments’ representative cited the importance of the dedication as they presented their nation’s flag, including Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation General Council Chairman Lindsey Watchman.
“It’s an honor for me to represent my people,” Watchman said. “These kind of events help strengthen (the university’s) relationship with tribal governments and makes us want to send our beloved children to your campuses.”
The sixth-annual celebration of Indigenous People’s Day at SOU came to fruition through the efforts of SOU alumna Lupe Sims, who delivered the event’s opening remarks and originally petitioned the university to host an Indigenous People’s Day celebration back in 2016.
“You have literally made history today — all of you,” Sims told the crowd.
Oregon State University-Cascades
Oregon State University-Cascades and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs held a two-day celebration Oct. 6 and Oct. 7 at the university’s Bend campus as part of a growing partnership.
The events are part of an event series called “First Peoples of Central Oregon Cultural Experiences,” highlighting the history and honor of Warm Springs tribes.
OSU-Cascades Chancellor Sherman Bloomer said the events are part of the university’s efforts to “put some substance” behind the university’s land acknowledgments and recognize the responsibility it has as a land-grant institution.
“We recognize the first peoples have and always have had a spiritual connection to the land,” Bloomer told the crowd. “As OSU is a land-grant institution, we recognize the profound responsibility our history creates in our institution and ongoing partnerships with the tribes.”
Events included a presentation on traditional Warm Springs tribes’ regalia, beading, drum-making and basket weaving presentations, storytelling, dancing and a salmon bake.
University of Oregon
The walls of the University of Oregon longhouse reverberated with drumbeats and laughter as UO’s Native American Student Union hosted a mini powwow in celebration of Indigenous People’s Day on Oct. 9.
Community members, students and faculty, dressed in a range of attire from full regalia to college casual wear, filled the longhouse for an evening of games, song and dance.
As the powwow came to an end, NASU organizers began filling the floor with blue goodie bags stuffed with “all the goodies a college student needs” and encouraged students in attendance to grab one. Less than a minute later, all the bags were gone.
“It just goes with the theme of student powwow,” Megan Van Pelt, NASU
co-director, said.
Alexa Martinez, reigning Miss Klamath Restoration Powwow queen and human physiology sophomore at UO, attended and danced at the mini-powwow in her light pink and gold jingle dress.
“It is very powerful that we’re here today,” Martinez said. “Even our existence speaks so much.”
Barbie’s Village
Everyone was on their feet for the first drum and grand entry at the Future Generations Collaborative-hosted, or FGC, Children’s Powwow at Barbie’s Village in Northeast Portland in honor of Indigenous People’s Day.
FGC is a Portland-based Indigenous-led organization.
The event, held at Barbie’s Village in Northeast Portland, a community event space and what FGC hopes will become a tiny home village for Native women and children experiencing homelessness, attracted hundreds of community members for song, dance and camaraderie.
Children donning vibrant, colorful regalia brought their best dancing skills and a joyous reminder of the enduring vitality of Indigenous communities.
Jana Schmieding, a Cheyenne River Lakota actor and beloved figure in Indian Country best known for her roles in Native-focused television shows Reservation Dogs and Rutherford Falls, appeared at Barbie’s Village to visit with attendees and gave remarks to the crowd.
Schmieding, who grew up in Canby and graduated from the University of Oregon, highlighted the importance of Native representation in media and culturally specific education for Native children in her remarks.
“We, as Oregon Natives, experience a ton of erasure locally that we all experience worldwide,” Schmieding said. “We experience erasure in education, we experience it in politics, and we experience it in media.
“I really believe that the breakthrough that Indigenous people in media happened because of the generations of work that our mothers and grandmothers cultivated for us.”
Chenoa Landry, a Puyallup tribal citizen and community health worker for the Native Wellness Institute, organized the event.
“(Schmieding) talked about the importance of Indigenous representation and the need for safe spaces in urban settings for us,” Landry said. “It was inspiring and uplifting.”
Landry estimates 600 people showed up to celebrate the holiday, including a host drum from Grand Ronde and a speaker who traveled all the way from Los Angeles to Portland just for the event.
“It felt amazing to see so many of our community gather, eat and celebrate,” Landry said. “Especially the youth just laughing, dancing and visiting.”
Though different entities coordinated the events celebrating Indigenous People’s Day in different communities, there was a common thread: a deep appreciation for community, a commitment to resilience, gratitude for spaces to celebrate each other and a deep sense of Indigenous pride.
“Our existence is resistance,” Landry said.
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