Monday will mark Lawton’s third celebration of a look at the history of the nation’s and Southwest Oklahoma’s first settlers.
This year’s 3rd Annual Indigenous People’s Day events are intended to allow the Native American people to share their narrative and educate children and the community to complete what has often been an incomplete history of the United States and the land from which it was born, according to Cornel Pewewardy, event coordinator. It begins by taking the national holiday, Columbus Day, and opening eyes to what that means to Native Americans.
“What we celebrate is our subversion of this national holiday, the way many folks have made it a space for radical intervention, he said. “Indeed, the invitation to celebrate Columbus was for some of us a compelling call to educate the nation for critical consciousness — to seize the moment to transform everyone’s understanding of our nation’s history.”
Pewewardy calls it a teaching moment to allow a public space to mourn and grieve for the world before arrival of Europeans as well as to allow a reclamation of indigenous cultural values. He said that Columbus introduced two phenomena that revolutionized both race relations and transformed the modern world. That includes the taking of land, wealth, and labor from indigenous peoples that led to their near extermination as well as the transatlantic slave trade. He called that the creator of the racial underclass.
This year’s theme is called “First Things First: Setting the Stage for Understanding of Indigenous People’s Day.” Pewewardy, a lifelong educator, said that fits the second purpose of the day, which is to be a resource for local teachers and educators to create a more developmentally and culturally responsive curricula.
The day also is intended to design a venue and tool to help people navigate their education about Native American/indigenous peoples, according to Pewewardy.
“Some of us are teachers, so affirming teaching theory: Start where the learner is,” he said. “Above all, we want this celebration to provide a safe place for people to get answers.”
Pewewardy hopes it offers a critical first step to comfortably dispel errors in thought and develop deeper understandings. The hope is to inspire people to propel their educations throughout a lifetime.
Last year’s events featured a lot of personal interaction over the day’s course. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many activities and events have had to be postponed or canceled, Pewewardy said. This year’s schedule has been modified for the circumstances.
Accordingly, two outside venues are planned for Monday with morning activities to take place at the southside of Lawton City Hall. The afternoon events will be at the East Pavilion at Elmer Thomas Park.
Pewewardy said that since Lawton Public Schools are out of session on Monday, a teaching and learning day will be rescheduled “so local students will be introduced to lessons and role models” of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
