NYC hosts one of the region’s biggest Indigenous Peoples Day events

RANDALLS ISLAND, N.Y. (PIX11) — For two days, hundreds of people gathered here to promote Native American culture and history on the federal holiday intended for that purpose.

Organizers said they value the holiday and their event, but more needs to be done to ensure that Indigenous Peoples Day gets the full recognition it deserves.

The event, which began on Sunday morning and wrapped up on Monday evening, was sited on Randalls Island — which is called Minnahanonck in the Lenape language —  in part because of its location relative to the city. Its separation from the urban setting was appealing.

“The grass, the trees, you’re by the water,” said Janice Torres-Perez, one of the organizers of the event, Indigenous Peoples Day NYC. “You feel nature. You get to be at an event that is true nature.”

That was apparent in many aspects of the rituals, from the prayers in which the hundreds of participants touched the ground in unison, to dances in which the accompaniment was skilled drumming on a giant gourd.

It was clearly a gathering that was simultaneously spiritual, cultural, and historical. All three of those qualities were combined in the many foods served at the event, according to its planners. Rebecca Torres was one of them. She pointed out that some commonly sold foods in New York eateries have their origins in North American Indian cultures. Some of those foods were being served up at the Indigenous Peoples Day event.

“Puerto Rican cuisine,” said Torres, as she pointed to platters of yuca, plantains, and beans, “is Taino cuisine, which is Indigenous cuisine.”

“We are remembering that we are connected to the land,” she said.

Hundreds of participants came and went. Some of them stayed in campers and tents overnight, from Sunday to Monday.

Ashley Diaz and Titi Afolabi were together at the gathering all day on Monday.

“[We] stand together with our community, our elders, our family, our siblings,” Diaz said about why she came. “We’re here to heal, love and transform.”

The event is a convergence, a unifying event, for native peoples from across the Americas, and beyond.

This is the tenth year of the Indigenous Peoples’ Day NYC. Its founder, Cliff Matias, said that it’s meaningful that the day is a federally recognized holiday.

“We have brought so much knowledge to people,” Matias said in an interview, “to understand that we are still here, and that’s what Indigenous Peoples’ Day is about — it’s celebrating our existence.”

However, he and others added, the holiday, while recognized by the federal government, is not on the official federal calendar, the way Columbus Day is.

He and other organizers of the event said that they want that to change. They pointed out that the primary activist who got Juneteenth added to the federal calendar, Opal Lee, has now publicly endorsed adding Indigenous Peoples Day to the federal calendar as well.

The New York event organizers said that it brings them closer to having Indigenous people get the recognition they deserve.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.