Oct. 9 was Indigenous Peoples’ Day. However, little attention was given to the holiday this year by PPS.
Ever since the 18th century, multiple cities have celebrated Columbus Day. It wasn’t until 1937 that Columbus Day became a federal holiday in the United States. However, various Indigenous groups and organizations have resisted this holiday since the beginning. South Dakota was the first state to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 1990. The holiday didn’t get federally recognized until 2021 by President Joe Biden. To this day, however, it is still not a federal holiday.
But what did PPS do to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day? PPS, of course, did the bare minimum. All of PPS’s social media accounts feature a lazy post stating, “Join us in celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” That’s all they had to say for the holiday. PPS didn’t provide any additional details about how they would be celebrating. However, many doubt that they did anything. PPS did, however, provide a more detailed post celebrating National Principals Month, which was on the same day. It should be mentioned that PPS did not officially start recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day until 2014.
Debonaire Powell, a senior at Ida. B Wells High School, and member of the Comanche and Arapaho tribe had this to say about the social media post, “I think it disregards the work people put into changing a holiday that celebrates a bad man. It feels like they half-assed it, you know?”
In the past, when Columbus Day was widely observed, schools would be off that day. While we did have the day off of school on Friday the 13, it should’ve been on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, just like it used to be for Columbus Day. “I feel disrespected that they changed the day. The fact that they changed the day to make it more convenient for them upsets me,” said Powell.
When it comes to acknowledging students of color, PPS falls extremely short. PPS has $2.3 million in communications, and they could not spend more than a minute creating a post to acknowledge and talk about Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
PPS has to do better in honoring students of color and the important holidays that involve them. What they can do to honor the holiday is to have the day off of school on the holiday itself, and not have it on some random day that works better for them. They can also do more to educate people on these important holidays by making more detailed posts.
