More than 100 people gathered below a statue of Christopher Columbus in downtown Syracuse on Monday to celebrate Native American culture in the city’s second annual Indigenous Peoples Celebration.

Syracuse community members sang, read poetry and spoke on stage about why Oct. 12 – which is federally recognized as Columbus Day – should instead be spent celebrating Native Americans.

“It’s hard to face the truth,” said Cindy Squillance, who helped lead the event. “But it’s better for all of us to be taught the truth and find ways to repair the damage than to pretend it didn’t happen or that it was too long ago to do anything about it.”

The Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation and Syracuse Peace Council hosted the event downtown.

Jack Manno, a retired SUNY-ESF professor, read a poem about being an Italian-American supporting Native Americans. Onondaga native Awhenjiosta Myers discussed how her people keep their culture alive. The whole crowd fell silent while her 13-year-old cousin, Arrow Booth, sang a traditional Onondagan song of friendship.

“We speak our language, we carry on our culture, we attend our ceremonies,” Myers said. “We walk around at times we feel questioned because we’ve adapted through time, but we still hold deeply to our teaching.”

Myers also said at the inaugural event last year that she thought schools weren’t teaching students enough about the “genocide” of indigenous peoples.

The second annual Indigenous Peoples Celebration in downtown Syracuse drew those from Native American tribes, as well as Syracuse city residents. Hieu Nguyen | Asst. Photo Editor

Onondaga Nation lawyer Joe Heath began his speech, as many did, by acknowledging that the crowd was standing on Onondaga land. He said that 30 to 40 million indigenous people lived in North America, and now there are only about 250,000 people. There are 573 federally recognized tribes in the United States.

A Syracuse University student and U.S. Army veteran, Philip George, spoke of his time at Standing Rock Indian Reservation and his two tours of service overseas, fighting for both his indigenous community and the U.S.

While some spoke of violence, others held signs promoting peace and recognition of indigenous people.

Many people wore political attire with slogans including “Trump 2020,” “Peace Demands Action,” “Elect Dana Balter” and “Democratic Socialists of America.”

The Syracuse Children’s Chorus sang a song for the event called “1492.” High-pitched voices rang throughout Columbus Circle listing out native tribes through lyrics.

Andy Majer, a Syracuse activist, began the event by saying that though the crowd represented people from many races and ages, most were white. He said that was significant.

“Today’s event is not sponsored or organized by the Onondaga Nation,” Majer said. “This is organized by white people, primarily folks who think that what our nation has done is unacceptable and we want to change that.”

Published on October 9, 2018 at 12:04 am

Contact Catherine: ccleffer@syr.edu | @ccleffert