Indigenous Peoples’ Day and the First Restatement of the Law of American Indians

On October 8, 2021, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation acknowledging the observance of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. President Biden proclaimed it “as a day to honor Native Americans, their resilience and their contributions to American society throughout history, even as they faced assimilation, discrimination and genocide spanning generations.” While the proclamation was not the first public acknowledgment of the day, it marked the first time that it has been formally recognized by a US President. This year, Indigenous Peoples’ Day is celebrated on Monday, October 10th.

The women from coastal Washington’s native tribes are known for their basketry. They made twined, coiled and plaited baskets for gathering clams and berries, storing and serving food and many other purposes. 1926. University of Washington, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The date of Indigenous People’s Day (the second Monday of October) occurs on the same day as a more widely observed federal holiday — Columbus Day. While many know Columbus Day to be a celebration of the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, who landed on the shores of the Bahamas in 1492, it was first designated as a federal holiday in 1934 as part of a movement to honor the struggles of Italian immigrants in America. However, it is the association with Christopher Columbus that prompted a movement to bring attention to “the inaccuracies and harmful narratives of Columbus’ legacy that credited him with his ‘discovery’ of the Americas when Indigenous people were there first.”

The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian stresses that it is important to remember that it was not Columbus or the many other explorers that landed on North American shores that discovered this country — it was the indigenous populations who had occupied the land for many generations before their arrival. Moreover, the museum states, “European contact resulted in devastating loss of life, disruption of tradition, and enormous loss of lands for Indigenous Peoples in the Americas. It is estimated that in the 130 years following first contact, Native America lost 95 percent of its population.”

The United States still celebrates Columbus Day as a federal holiday and an acknowledgment of Italian-Americans, as it was first celebrated in the 1930’s. However, the 2021 Presidential Columbus Day Proclamation urged Americans to see the day as one to reflect “on the dignity and resilience of Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities.” Many states have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day, such as South Dakota, which was the first state to do so in 1990 (although their holiday is named Native Americans’ Day). The first city to commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day was Berkeley, California in 1992. As of 2020, 130 cities now celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day.

Columbus Day is not a legal holiday in Washington State, but it is a “legislatively recognized day.” While the state has not changed the day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, in 2014 the Washington legislature officially designated the Friday immediately following Thanksgiving as a legal holiday to be known as Native American Heritage Day. Despite Columbus Day’s continued recognition in Washington, Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been celebrated in cities and towns throughout the state for the past several years. On March 29, 2022, the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a city holiday.

The new Restatement has been added to our collection and is available for checkout.

This year’s celebration will be of particular significance in the legal community, as it coincides with the first ever release of Restatement of the Law, The Law of American Indians. Restatements are meant to synthesize case law and statutes from U.S. jurisdictions to help the courts understand and apply the current law in a given area. Topics in the Law of American Indians volume include federal and state-tribal relations, tribal economic development, Indian Country criminal jurisdiction, and natural resources.

The Restatement reporters are both professors at Michigan State University School of Law and members of the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians and Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians. The completed volume was the culmination of a ten-year project and was unanimously approved for publication by The American Law Institute in 2021. Several 2021 and 2022 law symposiums focused on the new Restatement, including the 2021 Wisconsin Law Review Symposium. All panels from the symposium can be viewed online. The law library recently acquired a copy of the book which is available for checkout. Please contact the Reference Desk for checkout options at library.requests@courts.wa.gov or 360–357–2136.

For further reading, you may want to check out the following resources from the law library and beyond:

· Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian Law (also available in e-book format!)

· Dismembered: Native Disenrollment and the Battle for Human Rights (read our book review)

· Framing Chief Leschi: Narratives and the Politics of Historical Justice

· Where the Salmon Run: The Life and Legacy of Billy Frank, Jr.

· Native Land Map: See what Indigenous groups lived in your area.

· National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools blog post (LE)