A proclamation in observance of the Fifth Annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the City and County of Denver.
Thank you, Madam Secretary. The communication has been received and filed. We have one proclamation being read this evening. Councilmember Torres, will you please read proclamation one one, three, one. Thank you. Council President in observance of the fifth annual Indigenous Peoples Day in the city and county of Denver. Whereas the city, the Council of 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 homelands of numerous indigenous tribes, including the southern ute and Ute mountain ute tribes of Colorado. And. Whereas, the tribal homelands and seasonal encampments of the Arapaho and Cheyenne peoples along the banks of the Cherry Creek and the South Platte River confluence gave bearing to future settlements that would become the birthplace of the Mile High City. And. Whereas, Colorado encompasses ancestral home lands of 48 tribes, and the city and county of Denver and surrounding communities are home to descendants of approximately 100 tribal nations. And. WHEREAS, on October 3rd, 2016, the Council of the City and County of Denver unanimously passed Council Bill 16, Dash 801, officially designating the second Monday of October of each year as Indigenous Peoples Day in Denver, Colorado. And. Whereas, the Council of the City and County of Denver continues to recognize and value the vast contributions made to the community through indigenous peoples knowledge of science, philosophy, arts and culture. And through these contributions, the City of Denver has developed and thrived. And. WHEREAS, the city and county of Denver all acknowledges that the role of women within the indigenous community is a sacred role and all encompassing and central role to the aspects of indigenous culture, life and knowledge, and is vital to the health, wellness and safety of indigenous communities. And. Whereas, many outstanding Indigenous women have organized, led, local and national proactive efforts addressing COVID 19 health and education, preparedness and response, missing and murdered Indigenous people, awareness and native specific homelessness advocacy. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver that the Council celebrates and honors the cultural and foundational contributions of indigenous people to our history, past, present and future, and continues to promote the education of the Denver community in these historical and contemporary contributions of indigenous people of the city and county of Denver does hereby observe October 12th, 2020 as Indigenous Peoples Day, and that the Clerk in the city and county of Denver shall a test and affix a seal to this proclamation, and that a copy be transmitted to the Denver American Indian Commission and the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs. Thank you, Councilmember Torres your motion to adopt. I move that proclamation 20 dash 1131 be adopted. Second, second. It has been moved. And second term I think we got. Councilman Hines and then Councilwoman Ortega in comments by members of council. Councilmember Torres. Thank you so much. Declaring the second Monday in October Indigenous Peoples Day was championed by my predecessor, now Clark Lopez, when he was on council. It is both about recognition and visibility, not just here in Denver, but nationally. Two years ago, this country elected the first indigenous women ever to Congress, and today an indigenous woman is running for office in Arizona. And she's shared something that I'd like to share with you. In her words, quote, My late grandmother, Katherine Jose Maria, was born here in Arizona in 1918. Although our people were here first, my grandma was not considered a U.S. citizen at her birth because she was awesome. She was not born with the right to vote in 1924, when my grandma was six years old. Congress passed legislation that granted Native Americans US citizenship but did not necessarily give them the right to vote. Voting laws were controlled by states and Arizona law explicitly denied natives that right. In 1939, she turned 21 the legal voting age, but was not allowed to cast a ballot in 1948 when she was 30 years old. To Fort McDowell. Yavapai tribal members and World War Two veterans attempted to register to vote in Maricopa County. After returning home from the war when they were denied, they sued the state for violating their constitutional rights. The Arizona Supreme Court agreed. In 1948, the decision in Harrison V Living finally guaranteed Native Americans the right to vote in Arizona. However, being given the right to vote did not mean that Native Americans were able to vote. State government workers, still US natives and other people of color to take literacy tests. Subjected them to intimidation tactics. Or simply denied them entry when they tried to cast a ballot. It wasn't until the rise of the civil rights movement and the resulting Voting Rights Act of 1965, that federal law finally protected my grandmother's ability to vote. It is my honor to present this proclamation this year and remind everyone in Denver that our ability to vote was and is hard fought for. Thank you so much, Madam President. Thank you, Councilmember Torres. And seen no other hands raised for comments by my colleagues. I want to acknowledge and thank you for bringing this forward and the many women families who have suffered for. Centuries. And us acknowledging what has transpired and setting the intention to do differently. I appreciate that. And we can just continue that work together and moving this forward. Thank you for the work on this and especially the land acknowledgment that I hope that we can start to incorporate into our meeting because words matter and the way in which we use those words matter and the consistency and the intent also matters . And so thank you for for that and the initiative. Councilwoman. Madam Secretary, roll call. Torres. I. Black. I see tobacco. I. Clark. I. Flynn. I. Herndon. I. Hands. Hi. Cashman. I can reach. I. Ortega. I. Sandoval. I. Sawyer. I. Madam President. Hi, Madam Secretary. Please close the voting and announce the results. 13 Eyes. 13 Eyes. Proclamation 113. One has been adopted. We have 5 minutes for the proclamation. Acceptance Council member Torres will start the five minute timer. Would you please introduce who you'd like to bring up to accept this proclamation? Thank you. Council President I would like to introduce Dr. Christy Nelson. Dr. Nelson was recently organized an indigenous collective of community members via Zoom, social networking, focusing on education, community building and support, physical and mental wellbeing and response to the COVID 19 pandemic. She is an assistant professor at the Madrid College of Education at the University of Denver. Dr. Nelson blends critical theory and indigenous perspectives and methods to explore long term impacts of pre-college access programs. She strives to challenge the status quo of higher education for native students and their communities. I also welcome Danielle C Walker, who is a multitalented writer and artist who lives in the Green Valley Ranch community. She's an active member of the Denver American Indian Commission since 2019. This past July, she published her book Still Here A Past and A Past Present Insight of Native American People and Culture. And she was a featured artist at the Denver Mesa Art Museum Web page. Danielle is also the co-creator of the Red Road Project, an art and media project documenting words and visuals of inspiring and resilient stories of Native America. And they are both here. I see. They want to unmute. Hello. You have the floor for about 5 minutes. I will go first, Daniel, if you don't mind. Thank you. Ghazi. I am honored to be given the space to address the council and the audience in attendance today. I wanted to start by just doing a little bit of recognition in terms of the history of indigenous communities here in Denver. So in 1956, through the Indian Relocation Act, Denver was identified as one of those relocation sites through the Relocation Act. Young native folks were given the opportunity to seek education and job opportunities. However, this was a very systematized approach to dislocating and removing indigenous people from their traditional homelands as they gathered here in the now Denver area . 60 years later, I'm very honored to know that Colorado Rises, which stands for Reclaiming Indigenous Spaces. Educational Sovereignty is really the epitome and the lived experiences of all of our past generations. I'm very honored to be able to have the space to honor the family that I have, the people that have taught me how to engage with our communities. And I'm so honored to be able to work with so many great folks across the state of New Mexico. I'm sorry, Colorado. Sorry. I'm from New Mexico. Again, I really do appreciate the space and time and again, I just passed this on to Danielle. And Chris wash day and Apache is a pro Honda and you'll see Walker immediately. Denver wanted my papa Lakota a Taha Standing Rock Sioux tribe. I greet you all from the bottom of my heart. My name is Daniel C Walker and I live here in Denver. I am from the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and am identify as Papa Lakota. I'm honored and humbled to be here with you all today. Our on to Indigenous Peoples Day as we acknowledge all of our indigenous communities in the nation. But I specifically wanted to address and acknowledge our missing and murdered indigenous women, girls and to spirited people. While violence plays, plagues many communities across the country and the world, I wanted to specifically recognize the missing and murdered indigenous women, girls, and to spirit people on these lands. Indigenous women are ten times more likely to be killed than the national average in the United States. And of the several, several thousands of documented, we know there's more than this, but documented cases of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls and two spirit people in this country. There's only been about 100 cases that were included in the US Department of Justice missing persons lists. Four out of five indigenous women experience violence in their life, while one out of two half of us experience sexual violence in our lifetime. It's not even a matter of of of us thinking, how could this happen to us? It's a matter of kind of thinking, when is it going to happen to us? And so we need more awareness on this epidemic that not only plagues us here in the United States, but many indigenous communities around the world. And we just need more resources. And any time I have a platform to speak about this and bring awareness, I do feel a major. Thank you very much. Gratitude to be here. Thank you. Thank you very much, Christine and Danielle, and the important perspective and words that you brought and Councilwoman Torres for sponsoring this proclamation. Any any final words, Councilwoman? No, thank you.