Indigenous Peoples' Day 2026: Why We Celebrate Native Resilience and Respect

Indigenous Peoples’ Day was first officially proclaimed by US President Joe Biden in 2021. Acknowledging that it is imperative to uphold the rights and dignity of the indigenous people who were here long before colonization of the Americas began, Biden also admitted that US federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate Native cultures.

Kerri Malloy, a professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies at San José State University, told NPR that Columbus’ arrival to the Americas “triggered a mass genocide of Indigenous people throughout the Western hemisphere,” which included deadly diseases being spread among them, their land being stolen, and forcible conversion to Christianity.

Why should each of us celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day, when so much has changed in the 250 years of our nation? There are so many reasons to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Here are a few.

• Look around you, US residents. The land on which you stand, live, work, and love is an indigenous homeland. Its people deserve our respect.
• We rarely hear the stories of Indigenous peoples nor their perspectives. October’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day is an invitation to open our minds and learn about the people, cultures, and events that shaped this land.
• As children in the US, we are taught that the Wampanoag people held a big feast to celebrate their guests, the Pilgrims. In actuality, the Pilgrims considered their Indigenous saviors as “infidels” and inferiors, according to the Zinn Project. The “hosts” provided and served the food, but they did not sit side-by-side with their unwanted European guests.
• When we stop to appreciate Native American cultures, we see rich traditions, honorable histories, and tenacious determination. Indigenous stories retell familiar narratives with authenticity and stark illumination.
• Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day allows us to offer our gratitude for those who have protected the Earth at great personal costs, even as European-Americans have poisoned it by burning fossil fuels.

How do we begin? Perhaps we listen to indigenous elders who devote their lives to life-giving acts of “intentional decolonization, our way of keeping alive a simple custom that’s become sacred.”

We can respect indigenous self-determination in the US. Research indicates that three priorities continue to be important to Indigenous people: food security, Indigenous knowledge and practices, and the transmission of culture and traditional ways of living to younger generations.

Of them all, the urgency of building food sovereignty in Indigenous communities is “stark,” argues Danielle Nierenberg at the Food Tank.

“Food insecurity levels among Native households in the United States are significantly above the national average,” she continues. “But when Indigenous communities set the terms for their own food and agriculture systems, land management practices, economic structures, cultural expression, and health policy, things change for the better. There’s deep wisdom in these foodways—wisdom that’s lasted thousands of years and can continue to protect and nourish communities to this day.”

We can look to indigenous ethnobotanists for guidance. We all depend upon plants and their important pollinators for our existence and survival. Plants provide food, medicine, shelter, dyes, fibers, oils, resins, gums, soaps, waxes, latex, tannins, and even contribute to the air we breathe. Through indigenous ethnobotany, we can promote afforestation, agricultural diversity, and wild or domestic crops while also better using of land, water, and ancestral knowledge to improve local food systems.

In challenging the founding myth of the US called Manifest Destiny, the holiday reminds us that indigenous peoples have the knowledge and practices needed for the US and global community to implement and scale up climate action. We can protect indigenous people who want to transition to clean energy.

The climate crisis and its accompanying impacts and risks have caused many indigenous people to rethink their habits of dependence on fossil fuels for energy, transportation, and conveniences. Enhancing quality of life for indigenous people includes the movement toward renewable clean energy sources. Indigenous-led organizations and tribal nations are developing their own energy futures — on their own terms.

Of course, there is much, much more to be done to transition tribes to renewable energy independence. The task is enormous. Indigenous peoples contribute the least to greenhouse emissions, yet they’re among the first to face the direct consequences of the climate crisis.

For example, the climate crisis is quickly altering the shape of northwest coastal regions — its ecosystems, its coastlines, and ways of life. Alaska Native villages are particularly at risk of severe infrastructure damage due to climate related environmental impacts, including sea level rise, erosion, and extreme weather events. Select tribes can relocate inland, should they so desire, with built-in safeguards to protect tribal sovereignty while revitalizing their communities.

Fracking is another in a long list of incalculable losses that native peoples across North America have suffered. In the last decade alone, the US EPA stripped nearly 40 tribes of their ability to make fundamental decisions regarding fracking, agricultural pollution, and the dumping of toxic waste on their own lands.

Essential to enhancing the resilience of global ecosystems, indigenous people have traditional and local knowledge to interpret and react to the impacts of the climate crisis in ways that are quite different than western approaches.

Nature-based solutions is one important approach, as they restore urban biodiversity by addressing ecological damage, improving air and water quality, and supporting multi-scale ecological processes, are starting to be viewed as efficacious options. And these solutions are drawn from the ancient world. Ensuring full and inclusive participation of indigenous people in nature-based solution planning and decision-making is good for everyone.

Final Thoughts

We must learn about indigenous practices in this era in which urban residency is increasing exponentially and our generation of children has never been more disconnected from the outdoors. We need to find ways to understand nature and to treat the Earth with respect. This means experiencing it viscerally and personally and also by looking to those with ancient knowledge to guide us.

We must look to indigenous people who have come before us, recognizing that the knowledge we possess from western science may not be sufficient to answer questions about protecting the Earth. We must learn from indigenous ways while we can.