In 2021, President Joe Biden became the first president to acknowledge Indigenous Peoples’ Day. What was meant to be a representative day was destroyed four years later when Donald Trump brought Columbus Day “back from the ashes” to celebrate Columbus’s “extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue” this year.

When speaking to Indigenous activists, they all seemed to be on the same page: this meant nothing. Karankawa Hawk Clan educator, resistance artist, activist, and language keeper, Chiara Enriquez, also known as Do’wal Sehi (Sunshine) stated that she “wasn’t too upset” when seeing the news. To her it made “sense like it’s never been anything set in stone; it’s been a performative way to just be like sorry about that guys but we gave you a day.”

Steph Littlebird, Kalapuya and Chinook author-artist activist, agreed with Do’wal Sehi, claiming, “We don’t actually need your recognition because you have refused to recognize our community for hundreds of years.”

America has always been nothing more than a performative trend hopper; slapping names onto days and months without reparations for the atrocities the government committed against the marginalized groups they so claim to support. Littlebird said, “It’s very shallow when you can recognize us one year and then change your mind the next year.”

We have Black History Month, where the government does nothing but acknowledge its existence instead of actively supporting Black people and offering reparations for the horrors that no word is strong enough to capture. We have Arab-American Heritage Month, where the government only acknowledged it during the Biden administration with absolutely no reparations to the cruelty they inflicted in Southwest Asia and North Afrika. We have Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, where once again it is only ever acknowledged with no reparations to what the government inflicted on people and their descendents from those countries.

The government throws out proclamations to distract Americans from actual issues. It signs fancy decrees, making small symbolic changes, to maintain the perception of progress while reinforcing the existing power structure that oppresses marginalized groups. They suppress more radical calls for change, labeling actual activists as terrorists and then celebrating them years after they are gone with a day named after them.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day, while shining the light on Indigenous people, does nothing to aid them in reality. It relies on the public to make up for what the government refuses to do, while never actually telling the public how to respectfully celebrate and support Indigenous peoples.

As Do’wal Sehi says, “a day to appreciate Indigenous peoples doesn’t cut it. And for the government to give us like a day where like a day is never going to cover the atrocities that the American government had committed against us.”

People can be as appreciative of Indigenous peoples and their cultures, but as Do’wal Sehi articulated, “All they have to do is like just say they like it, but that doesn’t undo anything that’s been done, and it doesn’t help the crimes that we still have to suffer through.”

The National Institute of Justice published a research report labeled “Violence Against American Indian and Alaska Native Women and Men” in 2016 which detailed the high rate of crimes committed against Indigenous peoples. It states “More than four in five American Indian and Alaska Native women and men have experienced violence in their lifetime.”

In 2023, Indian Health Service, a federal health program for Native Americans and Alaska Natives, released information which shows that over 1.4 million Indigenous peoples reported that they have experienced violence in their lifetime. According to The National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, which was run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, non-Hispanic Native Americans and Alaska Native women and men had the second highest rate of homicide in 2020. As the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center states, “Native women face murder rates ten times the national average.”

The label of Indigenous Peoples’ Day does nothing to actually help Indigenous people. Even with the existence of the day, Americans still celebrate Columbus, who was known to be a tyrannical rapist that tortured, mutilated, and paraded Native American women naked through the streets before selling them into slavery. It was all detailed in Columbus’s own letters, journals and diaries as well as by eyewitness accounts by members of his own crew. He was the architect of a system that pushed for genocide and dehumanization. His legacy is no different from Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Columbus Day will never be a valid holiday and should absolutely be removed from all calendars. There is nothing to celebrate when it comes to colonization.

Instead, America should put its money where its mouth is. Indigenous Peoples’ Day should be a day about actually giving back to Indigenous people. When asked, both Littlebird and Do’wal Sehi say that the best way to give back is to educate yourself on whose land you are occupying and taking the time to actually learn about the horrors committed against the Indigenous peoples instead of relying on information given to you by a biased and censored education given to you by the government. According to Do’wal Sehi, “It would start with having a conversation with all these settlers to try to get them to, at the bare minimum, accept what has happened.”

We need to push for the return of the remains of ancestors back to their tribes instead of displaying them in museums. We should support land-back initiatives and return the land that’s been stolen. The biggest thing a person can do though to be an actual ally, is to donate. Whether it’s money or time, it is our responsibility to respect the people whose land we occupy.

Activists Steph Littlebird and Do’wal Sehi can be reached at @artnerdforever and @karankawachicharra on Instagram. Check out Do’wal Sehi’s portfolio, https://chiaralillieenriquez.portfoliobox.net/ and Steph Littlebird’s etsy, https://www.etsy.com/shop/stephlittlebird/

Additional resources can be found at the following linktree: https://linktr.ee/sweepitundertherugamerica