Princeton Declares Indigenous Peoples Day In October

PRINCETON, NJ — When Princeton residents wake up on Monday, Oct. 14 they will be celebrating a new day as the council has recently declared the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day in the municipality.

Although it falls on the same day as Columbus Day, Councilwoman Leticia Fraga stressed the resolution does not replace the holiday that marks the founding of America by Christopher Columbus.

"We took great care in the wording of this ordinance that it does not say anywhere that it is replacing Columbus Day. It is our wish, the Civil Rights Commission's wish to introduce this ordinance and recommend that Princeton recognize the second Monday in October to be recognized as Indigenous Peoples Day not instead of," said Fraga, who is also a member of Princeton's Civil Rights Commission.

The mayor and council unanimously voted and passed the resolution during it's Sept. 9 meeting.

Kim Dorman, a member of the Civil Rights Commission, noted that the group had been working on this resolution over the past year and used the Seattle, Washington's resolution as a starting point to create the language in the Princeton version.

"This committee truly did a lot of work and a lot of research to make sure the wording was unique to Princeton," Fraga said at the meeting.

"I wanted to emphasis and underscore that we have heard about what this means as far as Columbus Day is concerned and I wanted to point out that Columbus Day has not been an official holiday for this municipality or the schools for that matter," Fraga said.

The wording in the resolution points to "developing educational opportunities to explore and celebrate the thriving cultures and values of the indigenous peoples in our region and beyond."

Princeton resident Daniel Harris also pointed to the educational aspect of the resolution at the meeting.

"The heart of this resolution really has to do with education and it gives us a mandate and platform to go on from here to help all of us to understand issues of genocide, issues of cultural suppression, issues that our white ancestors have been responsible for that have longingly gone unrecognized," Harris said.

Princeton Public Schools already has been integrating "the study of the complex history, traditions, and arts of indigenous peoples into the schools’ curricula in order to revise distorted histories of 'Indians'," according to the resolution.

There were no comments made by the public against the resolution during the meeting.

To view Princeton's full resolution on Indigenous Peoples Day click here.

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