Indigenous Peoples’ Day Now Observed as a Sierra Club Holiday

Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the second Monday in October (this year October 8th), is now observed as a Sierra Club organization-wide holiday.  The Angeles Chapter office will be closed on Monday, October 8.  The office closure does not affect committee meetings, outings or other member activities scheduled for that day.

 

The holiday is to celebrate Indigenous peoples and to encourage staff to participate in local Indigenous Peoples’ Day events. 

 

The Sierra Club Board of Directors has approved the holiday to all Sierra Club employees.  

 

What is Indigenous Peoples’ Day? 

 

The movement to redefine “Columbus Day” to “Indigenous Peoples Day” began in 1977 at a conference on Indigenous rights in Geneva, Switzerland. The first community to officially celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day is right in the backyard of our own headquarters - Berkeley, California. In 1992, activists in Berkeley organized against a plan to sail three historical replica ships under the Golden Gate Bridge in honor of the 500th anniversary of the voyage of Christopher Columbus. They stopped the ships from sailing and won support from the Berkeley City Council to recognize what had previously been known as Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Since then, several states and a number of cities have followed suit, building a national movement to celebrate Indigenous peoples rather than a historical figure famous for genocide and violence committed against Native communities.

 

To learn more about Indigenous Peoples’ Day, please read “The History of Indigenous Peoples' Day” or this roundup of current perspectives on the day from Indigenous activists and organizers.