Proposal would designate 2nd Monday of every October as Indigenous Peoples' Day in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is poised to formally dedicate the second Monday of every October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

The day is typically celebrated as Columbus Day, but 20 states across the country — not including Pennsylvania — have devoted the day to indigenous people, said Councilwoman Barb Warwick, D-Greenfield.

Warwick, who sponsored the legislation, said the city needs to acknowledge the past and present mistreatments of indigenous communities.

“I think it sort of goes without saying that, as a nation, we recognize the atrocities committed against our indigenous communities,” she said.

Miguel Sague, who sits on the board of the Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center, said the organization has been advocating for “a very long time” for Pittsburgh to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day formally.

“My tribe is actually one of the original nations that (Christopher) Columbus encountered in October of 1492 when he arrived in the Americas,” Sague, who belongs to the Taino community, said. “To me, it’s a very personal thing.”

Once the explorer reached the Americas, Sague said, Columbus and his people “began a horrific genocide of my people” and mistreatment of other indigenous cultures.

“The Taino were really decimated by enslavement,” Sague said. “There was hard labor and enslavement, and later on diseases were brought over by the Spanish. It went from bad to worse and it never got any better.”

Sague said he feels people should be cognizant of the plight of indigenous people.

He said he’s been waiting for this since 2014, when city officials introduced a will of council that recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the city for that year, but not in following years.

“We are moving forward, and this is a wonderful thing,” he said.

Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, D-Squirrel Hill, said this could be the first step in a larger effort to recognize and support indigenous communities.

“I think there’s probably more worth exploring in this vein as well,” she said. “I think there are other things that are beyond even a symbolic gesture that we can explore as well.”

Sague said he’d like to see officials support education on the history of indigenous people and Columbus and other colonists. It’s important, he said, to teach this history in schools and acknowledge even the uncomfortable moments in history.

“That should be taught,” he said. “That stuff happened. If it’s unsavory and if it makes some people uncomfortable, I’m sorry, but it’s what happened.”

City Council on Wednesday unanimously supported the legislation in a preliminary vote Wednesday. Council is expected to take a final vote on the measure next Tuesday, the day after the holiday.

Warwick said the conversation about making Indigenous Peoples’ Day an annual dedication in the city came after a conversation about the Columbus statue in Frick Park, which has been at the heart of a legal debate regarding whether the statue can be removed.