A proclamation in observance of the second annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the City and County of Denver.
None, Mr. President. Communications. Do we have any communications? None. Mr. President, we. Do have one proclamation this evening. Proclamation 1127, an observance of the annual Indigenous Peoples Day in the city and county of Denver. Councilman Lopez, would you please read it? Thank you, Mr. President. With Pride Proclamation number 17. For me to say this department. Proclamation number 1127, series of 2017 and observance of the second annual Indigenous Peoples Day in the city and county of Denver. Whereas the Council, the city and county of Denver recognizes that the indigenous peoples have lived and flourished on the lands known as the Americas since time immemorial, and that Denver and the surrounding communities are built upon the ancestral homeland of numerous indigenous tribes, which include the southern ute, the Ute mountain Ute tribes of Colorado. And. Whereas, the tribal homelands and seasonal encampments of the Arapaho and San people along the banks of Cherry Creek and South Platte River confluence gave bearing to the future settlements that would become the birthplace of the Mile High City. And. WHEREAS, Colorado encompasses the ancestral homelands of 48 tribes in the city and county of Denver and surrounding communities are home to the descendants of approximately 100 tribal nations. And. WHEREAS, on October 3rd, 2016, the city and county of Denver unanimously passed Council Bill 801 series of 2016, officially designating the second Monday of October of each year as Indigenous Peoples Day in Denver, Colorado. And. Whereas, the council, the city and county of Denver continues to recognize and value the vast contributions made to community made to the community through Indigenous people's knowledge, science, philosophy, arts and culture. And through these contributions, the city of Denver has developed and thrived. Whereas. The Indigenous community, especially youth, have made great efforts this year to draw attention to the contributions of Indigenous people, including Confluence Week, drawing record attendance to a National Indigenous Youth Leadership Conference. Leading conversations on inclusion with their peers and supporting increased Indigenous youth participation in science and engineering. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by this Council of City and County of Denver, Section one, that the Council of the City and County of Denver celebrates and honors the cultural and foundational contributions of indigenous people to our history. Our past, present and future continues to promote the education of the Denver of the Denver community about these historic and contemporary contributions of indigenous people. Section two. At the city and county of Denver, Colorado does hereby observe October 9th, 2017, as Indigenous Peoples Day. Section three at the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall attest and fix the seal of the city and county Denver to this proclamation and that a copy be transmitted trans mitted excuse me to the Denver American Indian Commission, the city and county of Denver School, District number one, and the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs . Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Your motion to adopt. Mr. President, I move that proclamation number 1127 series of 2017 be adopted. All right. It has been moved and seconded. Council and council Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. It gives me a lot of pleasure and pride to read this proclamation. Officially for this for the third time. But as Indigenous Peoples Day in Denver officially for the second time. It is. It's always awesome to be able to see not just this proclamation come through, come by my desk, but to see that so many different people from our community in our in our council chambers. It was a very beautiful piece of artwork that you presented to us earlier, and it is exactly the spirit that we drafted this proclamation and this actual the ordinance that created Indigenous Peoples Day when we sat down and wrote it and as a community we couldn't think of anything else to begin except for the confluence of the two rivers. And those confluence of two rivers created such a great city and we live in such an amazing city, and we were all proud of it. And sometimes we and a lot of people from all over the country, all over the world, are proud of it and sometimes a little too proud of it. It's time to go back home. But I'm I'm kidding when I say that. But the really nice thing about this is that we are celebrating indigenous peoples day out of pride for who we are, who we are as a city, and the contributions of indigenous people to the city. Not out of spite, not out of a replacement of one culture over the other, or or out of contempt or or disrespect . You know, I think of a quote that Cesar Chavez made very, very popular. And it stuck with me for a very long time. And in any way any time I have the opportunity, I do speak in front of children and especially children in our community that, you know, they often second guess themselves and where they're coming from , who they are. And and I always say that, you know, it's it's very important to be proud of where you're from. And the quote that I used from Cesar Chavez is, you know, pride in one's own cultures does not require contempt or disrespect of another. Right. And that's very important. It's very important for us to recognize that no matter who we are, where we come from in this society, that your pride in your own culture doesn't require to not require the contempt or disrespect of another man. What a year to be for that to just sit on our shoulders for a while for us to think about. Right. And so I wanted to just to thank you all. I think the commission there's going to be a couple individuals that are going to come speak. Thank you for your art, your lovely artwork, for us to see what's in your heart and what now has become a probably is going to be a very important symbol for the community and also just for the work, the daily work every single day. We still have a lot of brothers and sisters whose ancestors once lived in these lands freely, now stand on street corners, right in poverty without access to services, right. Without access to sobriety or even housing or jobs. And what a what a. What a cruel way to pay back a culture that has paved the way for the city to be built upon its shores. Right. So we have a lot of work to do and these kind of proclamations and this day is not a day off. It's a day on. And Denver. Right. And addressing those those as critical issues. So I know that my colleagues are very supportive. I'm going to ask you to support this proclamation, as I know you always have done in the past. I'm very proud of today. Oh, and we made Time magazine and Newsweek once again today as being a leader in terms of the cities that are celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day. I wanted to make a point out of that. Thank you, Councilman Lopez, and thank you for sponsoring this. Councilman Ortega. Mr. President, I'm going to ask my name be added. I don't think I could add much more to what Councilman Lopez has shared with us. I want to thank him for bringing this forward and really just appreciate all the contributions that our Native American community has contributed to this great city and great state. I worked in the lieutenant governor's office when the Commission on Indian Affairs was created and had the benefit of being able to go down to the Four Corners for a peace treaty signing ceremony between the Utes and the Comanches that had been sort of that at odds with each other for about 100 years. And just being able to participate in that powwow was pretty awesome. So and for those of you who continue to participate in the annual powwow, it's it's such a great opportunity for everybody else to enjoy so many of the contributions of the culture. I mean, to see that the dance continues to be carried on as well as as the native language from generation to generation is just so incredible because in so many cultures, you know, people have come here and assimilated to the the you know, the norms here, and they lose their language and and lose a lot of the culture and in the native community that that hasn't happened. That has that, you know. Commitment to just passing that on from generation to generation is so important. And so I'm happy to be a co-sponsor of this tonight. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Councilwoman Ortega, Councilwoman Kenney. Thank you very much. And I also want to thank my colleague for bringing this forward. And I just wanted to to say a word to the artist about how beautiful and moving I thought this logo was and your description of it. And I think one of the things that is clear is, you know, the words sometimes don't convey the power of imagery or music or the other pieces that make up culture. And so I think the art is so important. And when you talked about water, I was also thinking about land and I guess I just wanted to say thank you. Many of the Native American peoples of Colorado have been at the forefront or actually nationally of defending some of the the public lands that have been protected over the last few years that are under attack right now. And there places that you are the communities have fought to protect, but that everyone gets to enjoy. And so I just think that it's an example of where cultural preservation intersects with environmental protection, with, you know, recreation and all of the other ways that that public lands are so important. And so I think I just wanted to say thank you for that, because I think we have some very sacred places in our country that are at risk right now. And so as we celebrate, I appreciate that there's still a piece of resistance in here. And I think that I just want to mention a solidarity and a mention, a feeling of solidarity with that resistance. So thank you and happy Confluence Week. Thank you, Councilwoman. Can each and see no other comments? I'll just say a couple. And in a time of such divisive ugliness and just despicable behavior from our leadership, the reason I'm so supportive of indigenous peoples days because it means inclusivity. It means respecting all, respecting those who have been silenced on purpose for a long time and whose history has not been told. And so we celebrate inclusivity in the face of such such evil times. Honestly, it is really evil times right now in confluence and inclusivity, in communion with community is what we're trying to be about and what we're trying to do. So thank you, Councilman Lopez, for embodying that and reminding us of who we are with that. Madam Secretary, do you think DC is listening? I'm just maybe not okay with that. Madam Secretary. Raquel Lopez. I knew Ortega I assessment I. Clark. Hi. Espinosa. Hi. Gilmore, I. Herndon. Cashman. Hi. Carnage. Mr. President. I play salsa. Very. And as a result. Are you missing one? Okay. Got it. Lebanese. 11 ays note the zero nays proclamation 1127 has been adopted. Councilman Lopez. Anybody want to bring up? Yeah, it was two individuals. Kimberly very like who was the chair of our american indian commission. If you want to come to the microphone and Martin strikes first his obituary, I gotta. Want to come up. Thank you. Would you? I'm sorry. Yes. Pronounce that wrong. Thank you. Good evening. Thank you. City Council, City Council President and council members, we really appreciate your support and your commitment to continuing to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day. We know we established this as a city holiday or in your name. We recognized in proclamation and we recognized it formally. And we are here to continue to be supportive of you and of the Indigenous community for Denver. My name is Kimberly Barwick. I'm Eastern Shoshone from Wyoming, from my mother's side. I'm Oglala Lakota and Hung Poppa from my father's side from South Dakota. And I'm the current chair for the Denver American Indian Commission. And I would like to introduce you and acknowledge our youth that our indigenous youth who are here in the council chambers as well. I'd like to introduce you to Martine Jerome. I'm sorry, Martine Jerome. I keep putting an hour in there. He is going to sing an honor song for us today. And as is appropriate in our culture, we would ask you to rise as he sings. I would also like to acknowledge some of our students here in the council chambers and as this proclamation does, recognize the contributions of youth, it would be appropriate for them to stand at this time. We have a couple and some from high school and college who are commemorating the day. And as in, I'm going to turn this over to Martin. So. So I. What? I. I know. And so. I know that. Thank you. Thank you, MARTIN. Thank you. City council members, city council and Denver community members on behalf of the Denver American Indian Commission. I would like to again thank you for your continued support and appreciation and appreciation of Indigenous Peoples Day. For a long time, in many years prior till now, many community members have sponsored, have put together, have created events surrounding Indigenous peoples and in both before, on and after the second Tuesday of October. Since the adoption or since the since Indigenous Peoples Day was established here in Denver firmly as as a holiday for the city. We continue to see our community members still putting together events before, on and after Indigenous Peoples Day. And so in honor of that, we have recognized, and as you saw, the artwork from Christina Bad Hand. We recognize this time period to be Confluence Week. And this year it's October 4th through October 14th, 2017. So in addition to some of the events that folks have put together and even though we've created a community calendar to highlight some of those events, I'd like to share with you that there are Indigenous youth who have taken that initiative to organize, participate, host and partner with community members to provide a public forum for Indigenous film, Indigenous discussion and Indigenous social events. So at this time, I'd like to share with you a recognize the native students of the University of Denver Native Alliance, the University of Colorado, American-Indian and Indigenous students, the University of Colorado at Denver, and the Metropolitan University Students Associations who have partnered with our community members at this time and also recognize and like to share with you. As Councilman Lopez mentioned, we had several high school and college students conference or focused conferences this year focusing on American-Indian science and engineering. We had also the United Native Indian Tribal Youth Conference, which is a leadership conference, unity that took place here in Denver at the beginning of June or in the middle of June. During this time, we had a record participation for Indigenous students at the Unity Conference. And I'd like to share with you a couple of the chapters, the Unity chapters who helped put together some of the local participation excuse me, participation pieces. That would be the the Metro, the Denver Metro Unity Chapter, Mile High Unity chapter, Northern Colorado Unity Chapter and the American Leadership Alliance in Boulder, the American Indian Youth Leadership Alliance . So I wanted to recognize and share that with you, to let you know that our students have been ambassadors to natives from across the country, Accra and internationally, that they represented themselves well, that they have organized themselves well. And as part of the community members, we have thousands of native youth who are students here within the front range area and we have over 1500 Indigenous students in the Denver public schools alone. And so on behalf of the Denver American Indian Commission, we appreciate your recognition and support of them today and their contributions to the community . During Confluence Week, during Indigenous Peoples Day and would like to recognize that your support, your recognition of them is important because they are community members more than just their family, more than students at school. They are community members who provide community service. They are they participate in community organizations and are avid participants in some of our local communities. Our local organizations like our medicine heart dancers, our the local cafe call, Twitter, the Four Wins Council and the Stronghold Society. All of these indigenous groups are youth focused. Their empowerment, they're expressive, they get students involved. And as you have recognized today, and we hope that you continue that support, it sends a very clear message that we recognize our cultural leaders like Mateen, to carry on not only are our indigenous ways to be our future leaders for the indigenous community of Denver. So thank you. Thank you and thank you, Councilman Lopez, for bringing this forward. All right. Madam Secretary, can you please read the resolutions.