Indigenous Peoples Day

Reciprocity. Relevance. Recovery. Reclamation.

CU Boulder students, staff and baby直播app and members of the Boulder community are invited to participate in a community celebration and observance of Indigenous Peoples Day through two signature events on October 14 and 16.

These events will give participants the opportunity to:

  • Understand the historical legacies of and present-day movements for Native and Indigenous social and environmental justice and civil rights.
  • Explore the interconnectedness of Native and Indigenous social justice movements to other identity-based and social and environmental movements for justice and civil rights.
  • Identify practical strategies for reciprocity, recovery and culturally responsible allyship with Native and Indigenous humans and organizations to address and advocate for justice, centering land back and language back.

Plenary Session and Luncheon

鈥淚ndigenous Peoples Day Reframed: Toward an Intersectional, Decolonial and Transnational Vision for Indigenous Sovereignty鈥

Oct. 14, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

UMC Glenn Miller Ballroom

Lunch will be provided. Registration is required.

Keynote Speakers

Makalika Destarte Naholowa’a

Makalika Destarte Naholowa鈥檃, JD

Recent Past President of the National Native American Bar Association and Executive Director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation

A native Hawaiian and cultural practitioner, Naholowa驶a is a lawyer and Indigenous peoples advocate who specializes in intellectual property, technology law and traditional knowledge. As executive director of the nonprofit, public interest law firm Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation, Naholowa驶a and colleagues work to advance Native Hawaiian identity and culture.

As an attorney, Naholowa驶a handled trademark, copyright and unfair competition cases at a leading private law firm in the Pacific Northwest and intellectual property and tech law at a Fortune 500 tech company, where she led the global trademark practice group. Naholowa驶a has also provided guidance on and spoken about intellectual property and traditional knowledge.

In 2023 and 2024, Naholowa驶a served as president of the National Native American Bar Association and has held leadership positions with the American Bar Association, the Washington State Bar Association, and the International Trademark Association. She is a lifetime member of the Native Hawaiian Bar Association.

Autumn BlackDeer, PhD

Autumn BlackDeer, PhD

Assistant Professor, University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work

BlackDeer听is a queer decolonial scholar and activist from the Southern Cheyenne Nation and serves as an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver. Her scholarship illuminates the impact of structural violence on American Indian and Alaska Native communities. BlackDeer centers Indigenous voices throughout her research by using quantitative approaches and big data as tools for responsible storytelling. BlackDeer is a racial equity scholar with an emphasis on Indigenous tribal sovereignty and is deeply committed to furthering decolonial and abolitionist work.

Land Back, Language Back: Workshops and Panel Discussions

Oct. 16, 2 to 4 p.m.

UMC 386

Land Back panelists:

  • Doreen Mart铆nez, Associate Professor, Race, Gender and Ethnic Studies, baby直播app State University
  • Andrea Knutson, Associate Professor, English, Oakland University
  • Leila G贸mez, Associate Professor, Women and Gender Studies, CU Boulder

Language Back panelists:

  • Ambrocio Gutierrez Lorenzo, Associate Professor, Linguistics, CU Boulder
  • Anthony Crank, Navajo Language and Culture Teacher, Denver Center for International Studies
  • James Sleeper, Lead Apprentice of the Cheyenne Arapaho Language Program in Oklahoma

Event Parking

Paid parking is available in the Euclid parking garage, just east of the University Memorial Center (UMC) between Broadway and 18th Street. This is a "pay-by-plate" lot and payment can be made at a pay station or by using the ParkMobile app (Zone 63205).听

Additional Resources

baby直播app Indigenous Peoples Day

Indigenous Peoples Day, a federal holiday in the United States, celebrates the continuing presence and millennia-deep contributions, history, traditions and long-standing concerns of the First Peoples who are indigenous to North, Central and South America and Hawaii. Officially adopted in 2021, the holiday is observed nationally on the second Monday of October.

Resource Guide

Prepared by CU Boulder University Libraries, supports the goals and outcomes for CU Boulder's Indigenous Peoples Day Signature Events by centering resources related to Indigenous knowledge in Hawaii, especially the coral reef, reclamation narratives by Indigenous artists, the notion of Indigenous reciprocity, cultural relevance, multiracial identity, and scholarly literature for North American regions.听

Campus Resources