Lincoln celebrates Indigenous People’s Day

Posted By: Sarah Fili

sfili@klkntv.com

October 10th, 2016: the first official Indigenous Peoples Day in Lincoln. Mayor Chris Beutler proposed a resolution, designating the 2nd Monday in October as a holiday, to honor the Native American heritage. The city council, approved.

"To me it just feels, a good vibe just to finally have a holiday just especially for us,” Cryus Walker said.

To celebrate, more than 50 Native Americans gathered at the capitol for what they say, is a major milestone.

"We are the first people, the first people of this country, we get the city here at least the city anyway is acknowledging us and this is exciting for us,” Frank Bearkiller, who raised the issue to the city council, said.

With the national celebration of Columbus’s arrival into North America comes a lot of pain for those whose ancestors were alive during that time. They say celebrating a day for Christopher Columbus felt inappropriate.

“To us he has a different meaning, he wasn’t a good man, killed many of our people, and he was given a lot of credit for something he didn’t do so we are glad the name has changed,” Bryan Brewer, Former President of the Ogallala Sioux Tribe, said.

Now, they feel honored to have a day that celebrates who they are– and recognizes their rich tradition and history in what we call the United States.

"I believe that its time that all the cultures get together, understand each other, understand the difficulties that we’ve both had, both sides have had, things that we’ve had t o go through and today is a day of healing i believe for all the people,” Brewer said.

Lincoln is now one of more than a dozen cities in the United States to observe this holiday.