Valley College commemorates Indigenous People's Day with acknowledgment

Valley erected a monument honoring the indigenous community in Monarch Square.

By Asher Miles, Staff Writer

All the main speakers and presenters with the new plague commemorating Indigenous people. (Photo by Allyson Rocas/The Valley Star)

Valley celebrated the inauguration of a new Land acknowledgement monument commemorating Indigenous people on Oct. 10 by partnering with the Tataviam Band of Mission Indians in Monarch Square in honor of Indigenous People’s Day.

Professors, students, and representatives from Indigenous tribes lead the acknowledgment with songs and speeches, recognizing the genocide that happened on native land in California. Staff members and students were invited to learn more about the erasure of California Indian people throughout the state.

“Our foundation is starting a fund and this will mark potential scholarship, internship, and shadowing programs for our indigenous students,” said Alex Ojeda of student services. “We are not here to only talk about the horrendous things that have happened to the indigenous population in the last 500 years. We hope this celebration will bring us all together and help us realize that we have more similarities than differences.”

Land Back is an Indigenous People’s movement seeking to gain political sovereignty in territories that were previously seized through the genocide of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people in North America and Canada. Land Back includes not just the transfer of territories, but the preservation of indigenous foods, rights, and traditions.

“It’s important to have plaques and acknowledgments, but I think it's more important to create intentional ways to give back to the people of the land, specifically like in Land Back,” said Cheyenne Phoenix, an organizer with Protect the Sacred. “We need to build that connection with the Tataviam people to remember how they used to live and how they live now in the contemporary post-colonial society that we live in. Their voices are not talked about in history books and there are so many important ways that they contribute to how we live today.”

Indigenous People’s day started as a counter-celebration to Columbus Day in 1992 in Berkley. The first celebration was meant to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Columbus's arrival to the Americas, known as the Columbus Quincentenary. Since its inception, the holiday has slowly picked up steam and was acknowledged by President Joe Biden in 2021.