Indigenous Peoples Day has been an official national holiday since last year, when President Joe Biden signed a proclamation. It has replaced Columbus Day in much of the U.S.
San Diego County is home to 17 tribal communities, the most of any county in the country. On Monday, members of the Intertribal S.T.A.R. group, representing the Kumeyaay and other tribes in the county, celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day with a performance at Canyon Hills High School in Tierrasanta.
S.T.A.R. stands for Strong, Traditional, And Resilient. Those are all characteristics of ancestors whose group members said were demoralized and degraded by European invaders, including Christopher Columbus, during the colonization of North America.
“He said he discovered America, but there were already people here. We had our societies and our own way of living,” said Connie Greybull, the Indian Education Program Director for San Diego Unified School District. She supports students of indigenous communities and coordinates curriculum and educational presentations like the Canyon Hills event.
Along with being entertained, the audience members were also educated by some young dancers their own age, who were part of the troupe.
James Arnold, 16, is a junior at Ramona High School. He has a heritage with the Navajo, Pueblo, and Lakota tribes. He has proudly been a grass dancer since he was 10.
“Back in the old days, they’d send out grass dancers before ceremonies and pow-wows,” he said, “the grass would be really long. It was tall plains grass, so they’d send out grass dancers to stomp down all the grass.”
Arnold’s younger sister, Aislynn, 14, also attends Ramona High School, and is committed to stomping down stereotypes. “We’re not just headbands and feathers on the tops of our heads. We’re so much more than that,” she said before the Monday performance.
In California, Indigenous Peoples Day became a state-recognized holiday in 2019, when Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation officially recognizing the day.
Canyon Hills was renamed last fall, after decades of being named Junipero Serra High School. Serra was a Spanish priest who led the forced conversion of indigenous people to catholicism during European colonization. The rebranding effort was started by students, who demanded the name be changed because of the disrespect and degradation Serra caused.
Erica Renfree is the school principal who led the way through controversy, and ultimately community agreement on the name change. She said, “ For our community, the tribal communities are a rich part of our culture and we want to continue that and allow that voice to be heard.”
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Then, the pork industry is challenging California animal welfare law before the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday. We’ll hear more about what the case is about. And, October is fire prevention month, a critical time for fire danger and preparedness.
