Superior Celebrates Indigenous Peoples’ Day: The Meaning Behind It

SUPERIOR, Wis. — The city of Superior celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday inside the Government Center, a tradition that has been running for several years there now in place of Columbus Day.

“I just want to let the people know that we were the first people that were here, we were here before Columbus landed,” Sid Perrault, a spiritual leader at the gathering, said.

Columbus Day was declared a federal holiday back in the 1930s by Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

It became common practice for people to get the day off of work, and for schools to teach the milestones the Italian explorer reached, who is credited for discovering America in 1492.

But for indigenous Americans, the celebration of Christopher Columbus glosses over the horrors their ancestors experienced when Europeans arrived and brutally killed many of them while taking over their land.

“It’s very disheartening to see the misinformation that was spread and something for us that represented a lot of trauma, and all the colonialism we experienced, to be celebrated as a bank holiday, to be celebrated as a national holiday, to have monuments built to somebody who frankly has destroyed an entire people,” Desiree Otterino, the “Domestic Violence Housing First” coordinator at CASDA and the secretary for the Superior School District American Indian Education Parent Committee, said. “It’s hard as a parent after your kids come home from kindergarten celebrating Columbus, and having to call a teacher and say, we’re native and this is how this really happened.”

Almost 500 years after Columbus landed in America, indigenous people still faced a wide array of discrimination, even by the federal government.

It wasn’t until the late 1970s that President Jimmy Carter signed the American Indian Religious Freedom Act that put basic protections in for indigenous people to have the freedom to practice their religions and sacred traditions.

“Our religion wasn’t even legal in this country until the 70s when we weren’t allowed to speak our languages, we weren’t allowed to have our ceremonies, so it’s pretty amazing for us in this generation to have come this far,” Otterino said. “We had an entire generation that could go to jail for practicing our religion, that could be sent to an asylum for speaking our language, so to be here in a government center and be supported by our government officials to celebrate our people rather than enslave them, it’s very amazing.”

The movement to change the second Monday in October to Indigenous Peoples’ Day is gaining momentum nationwide, with the idea originally proposed back in the 70s and 80s.

In Superior, Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been celebrated since 2016. It became the official holiday in the city instead of Columbus Day back in 2019 after Mayor Jim Paine introduced a resolution for it that was passed by city council.

With a large presence of the Ojibwe and Ainishinaabe tribes in the Northland, the city of Superior recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday with words from guest speakers along with performances of traditional songs and dances from indigenous tribes.

It’s a celebration that many hope only grows in the years ahead across the country.

“The more people that come out, the more support we got behind us,’ Perrault said.

“It’s very affirming,” Otterino added. “It’s wonderful to see a community gather around us in this way and to support us in this way, and it’s wonderful for us and for people who’ve experienced so much negativity and trauma to have a day that we can actually just celebrate.”