Council resistance
The mayor’s endorsement this week of an Indigenous Peoples Day observance is a reminder, as David Holt wrote in his proclamation, that Oklahoma City’s brief history was preceded by “many centuries of indigenous history.”
A member of the Osage Nation, Holt is Oklahoma City’s first mayor of Native American heritage. He designated Oct. 8 as the first official observance of Indigenous Peoples Day in the city.
“This is profound when many believe that nothing existed here before 1907,” said Sarah Adams-Cornell, of Live Indigenous OK and an advocate for the observance.
“We have a leader whose blood is tied to that history,” she said, “and hearing this truth spoken makes me not only proud but excited for the future of Oklahoma City.”
Holt is slated to read the proclamation at noon Oct. 8 at the Chickasaw Sculpture Garden at Oklahoma City University.
OCU President Martha Burger and Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma Chief Gary Batton will make remarks. The university will host a panel discussion that evening.
In his proclamation, Holt acknowledges Oklahoma’s 39 federally recognized tribes and says Oklahoma City, the state’s “political, economic and cultural capital,” is significantly shaped by its indigenous heritage.
“Whether called Indigenous, Native American, Native, or American Indian, people of indigenous descent are strong contributors to modern Oklahoma City,” he wrote.
Adams-Cornell said it was heartening that Holt included references to the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum, due to open in spring 2021, and social crisises in Indian Country such as missing and murdered indigenous women.
“I believe Mayor Holt is a bridge builder, very firmly,” she said.
Holt’s proclamation contrasts with the city council’s rejection in 2015 and 2016 of advocates’ requests to designate the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day.
Those motions to pass an Indigenous Peoples Day resolution failed under the leadership of the previous mayor, Mick Cornett. Holt became Oklahoma City’s 36th mayor in April.
Two years ago, 15 speakers addressed the council during a nearly hourlong discussion.
On the agenda were competing proposals, one to designate the observance of Indigenous Peoples Day on Aug. 9, the other on the second Monday in October.
All 15 speakers favored October as the official date. No one spoke against an observance.
Advocates favor the second Monday in October because that remains the federal Christopher Columbus Day holiday, although Columbus Day is not observed by the city of Oklahoma City.
Advocates take exception to observing a day dedicated to Columbus because of the 15th-century Italian explorer’s role, sailing under the Spanish flag, in Spain’s colonization of the Americas and the attendant depredation of native populations.
The Aug. 9 date is derived from a United Nations observance of indigenous cultures worldwide.
Some speakers in 2016 called for abolishing Columbus Day in Oklahoma City, a plea that produced some consternation among council members, and all sides were hung up over the date.
No majority could be found for either resolution and the issue lay dormant until Holt’s election.
Step forward
James Pepper Henry, director and CEO of the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum, said the Indigenous Peoples Day movement was not an effort to remove Columbus Day.
Rather, it is an effort to add an observance of indigenous people “to celebrate not only our resilience but our great cultural diversity and our contributions to our state and country.”
Pepper Henry was on Tulsa’s Indian Affairs Commission and cowrote a resolution establishing that city’s annual Native American Day observance, also on the second Monday of October.
He said he hoped the official observance would become an annual event in Oklahoma City.
He imagined the American Indian Cultural Center and Museum, in the interim before it opens, working with Oklahoma City University on the celebration.
Nationally significant numbers of indigenous people call Oklahoma City home, Pepper Henry said.
“It means a lot to the urban Indian population,” he said.