Returning to the roots


​City honors tribal relationship through Indigenous People’s Day proclamation


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Members from the Saginaw Chippewa Tribe perform a drum ritual on Monday in City Hall. Joe Syrette, a school teacher on the reservation, center, says the music is representative of his people. He believes Columbus Day is a product of the fabricated history that is being taught.

At Monday's City Commission meeting, Mayor Sharon Tilmann presented the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe with a proclamation recognizing  Columbus Day as Indigenous People’s Day. 

Every second Monday in October will now be known as Indigenous People’s Day in Mount Pleasant. To bring light to the true history of our country, Native Americans now have their own holiday.

“The proclamation is about educating ourselves about the Indian culture,” Tilmann said. “We need to work together. We have different cultures, and I would strive to remind the people that we are all in this community together, and that we need to work together, respect each other, honor each other and move forward.”

Just before the meeting, members of the tribe performed an honor song on a traditional drum for everyone in attendance.

The proclamation, which was developed starting last April according to Tilmann, states not only that Oct. 13 will officially be known as Indigenous People’s Day, but that the change is to honor the 150 year anniversary of the signing of the treaty that established the tribe.

In September, Tribal Council passed Resolution 14-152 officially recognizing Indigenous People’s Day on the second Monday of October and urged "the City of Mount Pleasant to officially recognize it as well."

Sub-chief Lorna Kahgegab Call, who accepted the proclamation on behalf of the tribe, said it means a lot to them to have recognition of their people’s original existence in North America.

“It’s about the recognition that Indians were here before Columbus,” Call said. “I think that overall, Indian people are a romantic notion for a lot of people, and that we don’t exist to them anymore.”

The adoption of Indigenous People’s Day will not replace Columbus Day as a national holiday, but will make Mount Pleasant one of several municipalities to move away from the traditional holiday since the trend began in the 1990s in Berkeley, California.

“Columbus is recognized as discovering America when our people have already been here,” said Kim Otto-McCoy, Call’s daughter.

In 2010, the city and the tribe worked out a settlement defining the tribe’s boundaries in Isabella County. Tilmann said the agreement settled long-standing disputes over jurisdiction and has served as a model agreement for other areas with Native American territories.

She said the proclamation of Indigenous People’s Day should serve as a commitment for the tribe and city to continue to collaborate.

“I think some of these ceremonies, processes and proclamations have been a long time coming,” Tilmann said. “It is for me that they make very public the high regard that both our cultures have for one another and a willingness to move forward in a collaborative and trusting fashion in the years ahead.”

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