Indigenous Peoples’ Day reimagines Columbus Day to celebrate the other side of European “discovery.” These celebrations advance concrete political causes, such as the re-establishment of land rights in the Piedmont.
The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (OBSN) trace their lineage to a confederacy of Siouan language groups that managed land in modern-day North Carolina and Virginia for centuries before colonization. Individual members of the OBSN partnered with local organizations to host the first ever Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Alamance County, a ticketed event on Monday, Oct. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw. The celebration features an educational panel, culinary tasting, visual art, music, and storytelling.
Host Frank Stasio talks with two of the event organizers who are members of the OBSN — Crystal Cavalier-Keck, the president of the North Carolina Democratic Party Native American Caucus, and A.yoni Jeffries, an Afro-Indigenous musician and artist based in Durham.