<body><div><figure><img src="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?type=thumbnail_580x000&amp;url=2kzEst_0wF3Vydn00" alt="https://img.particlenews.com/image.php?url=2kzEst_0wF3Vydn00" width="1662" height="1247" ><figcaption>UCF Multicultural Student Center helps to connect people of all different cultures by holding events and creating a safe place for people to come together and celebrate holidays such as Indigenous Peoples' Day. Aidan Carmody</figcaption></figure>National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a holiday that took place Monday, celebrates the resilience of Native Americans and acts as an alternative to the federal holiday, Columbus Day.“This is not just a story of death and destruction in the past,” Daniel Murphree, associate professor of history said. “It’s about perseverance, resurgence and overcoming things.” Indigenous Peoples’ Day came about in response to modern America‘s reflection of the atrocities committed on native people during the colonization of the North American continent. The holiday seeks to replace the long-celebrated Columbus Day, based on the Spaniard explorer, Christopher Columbus, who is credited for discovering North America.Faculty and students are embracing Indigenous Peoples’ Day and working to incorporate Native people and their culture into programs and events at UCF.Murphree teaches Indigenous American studies and American history at UCF. He said he also participates in research projects involving Indigenous groups.Although UCF holds few Indigenous American events, some of the faculty such as Murphree said they have been working closely with tribes conducting research.Murphree said that one project UCF’s faculty is working on is in collaboration with the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum, located on the Seminole tribe’s Big Cyprus Reservation, to annotate and digitally catalog Seminole tribe archives. The project is focused on taking historical newspaper clippings and posters and then adding context to them.“The more we work with them, the more we learn about their particular needs and concerns, which aren’t always the same as ours and that’s important to keep in mind,” Murphree said.According to the Smithsonian's National Museum of The American Indian's website, students are encouraged to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day. The Indigenous people of America associate Columbus Day with devastation to their lives and lands and would see that Indigenous Peoples’ Day highlight their perseverance while having been colonized in the not-too-distant past.Jasmine Kaur, junior health sciences major, serves as the diversity and inclusion coordinator of Student Government’s executive branch. She said that she’s worked to incorporate Indigenous voices into Student Government.Kaur said her work within Student Government is focused on the promotion of inclusion and the development of diversity-focused programs. She said her main goal in this role is to foster a welcoming environment where every student feels they belong.“Right now, we’re still in the early stages of building stronger connections with Native American students and communities,” Kaur said. “We are also actively exploring ways to engage more meaningfully with Indigenous students and amplify their voices in our programming.”Within Student Government, Kaur said that they focus on hiring students from diverse backgrounds to bring in a variety of perspectives when planning upcoming events. She said in the upcoming year that the Student Government and the Multicultural Student Center will be working towards holding events surrounding Indigenous culture.“Through our recent collaboration with the Multicultural Student Center, we are planning to highlight Native American culture through cultural displays in upcoming events,” Kaur said. “The goal is to develop meaningful programs that raise awareness while celebrating Indigenous history and fostering education about native cultures on campus.”According to UCF’s Land Acknowledgment Statement, the campus resides on Indigenous land belonging to the Ais, Apalachee, Calusa, Timucua, Tocobago, Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes of Florida. The statement said that taking initiative to acknowledge the university's place on Indigenous land is an important part of the mentioned tribe's representation and visibility in the modern world.Jaya Persaud, senior biomedical sciences and nursing major, is an international student from Guyana and served as cultural director at the Multicultural Student Center last Spring. She said her role focused on planning and hosting cultural events around campus.“Everybody comes from a different place and has their own stories, especially because at UCF there’s a lot of diversity,” Persaud said. “Just keep in mind that you don’t know everything.”Persaud said during her time working at the center there were no groups or events hosted surrounding Indigenous Americans at UCF.“I feel like they should make an organization like many that we have here to host events, get people involved and raise awareness,” Persaud said. “Having a group to advocate for them might probably be the best act.”According to The First Nation’s website, every day is Indigenous Peoples’ Day. They said people can remind others about the factual history of Native people on any given day and not just on the holiday.Murphree said that Native American tribes are still here and that they're thriving despite the genocide they’ve faced throughout history. Locally in Florida, he said he has worked closely with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and he has enjoyed sharing his knowledge about Native history and their culture. “The Seminole Tribe of Florida especially is going to be a huge force moving forward in Florida’s development economically, and in other ways that people can’t ignore, or that they shouldn’t ignore if they really want to understand the state,” Murphree said.</div></body>

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UCF looks to the future by embracing Indigenous Peoples’ Day

National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a holiday that took place Monday, celebrates the resilience of Native Americans and acts as an alternative to the federal holiday, Columbus Day. “This is not just a story of death and destruction in the past,” Daniel Murphree, associate professor of history said. “It’s about...