Each year, the City of Boulder provides support to organizations that recognize Indigenous Peoples Day through events and celebrations honoring the existence, culture and contributions of the original inhabitants of North America. Through this support, the city and its community partners work to promote knowledge about Indigenous Peoples and honor the city’s Indigenous Peoples Day Resolution.

Each year, the City of Boulder provides support to organizations that recognize Indigenous Peoples Day through events and celebrations honoring the existence, culture and contributions of the original inhabitants of North America. Through this support, the city and its community partners work to promote knowledge about Indigenous Peoples and honor the city’s Indigenous Peoples Day Resolution.

In 2016, the Human Relations Commission and community members drafted the Indigenous Peoples Day Resolution (Resolution No. 1190), which was presented at the Aug. 2, 2016, Boulder City Council meeting and adopted by the City of Boulder. It declared the second Monday of October of each year to be Indigenous Peoples Day. The resolution also guides the city’s ongoing collaboration with American Indian Tribal Nations and ongoing work to correct omissions of Indigenous Peoples' presence in places, resources and cultural programming.

This year, the city’s Human Relations Commission and Office of Arts and Culture have provided funding for several community events to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day 2022. Community events will occur from Saturday, Oct. 8 through Wednesday, Oct. 12 and are free and open to the public. Find information provided by event organizers below.

  • “Current Conversations,” Right Relationship Boulder. In partnership with the Southern and Northern Arapaho people and Native individuals and organizations around Boulder, Right Relationship Boulder will present several sessions with the theme “Current Conversations.” The sessions will be online with panels presenting on topics related to Land Back Movement, Healing Intergenerational trauma, Food Sovereignty, a Fort Chambers presentation and more. Right Relationship Boulder operates with Mediators Foundation as fiscal sponsor.

  • “Voces Ancestrales por la Madre Tierra / Ancestral Voices for Mother Earth,” Luna Cultura. This is an event of art, culture, oral tradition, and sound. With poetry, music, and indigenous art from the Sierra Norte region of Puebla, the Highlands of Chiapas in Mexico, and Port au Prince in Haiti. It also integrates the art of storytelling, by connecting with ancestral stories through embroidery. The preparation of amaranth “Alegrías”, a mystical ancestral Mesoamerican food, is included for everyone to taste. It is an intercultural event, where mysticism, art, and history interweave narratives for the care of Mother Earth and Resilience. This is a bilingual event.

  • “Indigenous Youth and Human Rights,” The American Indian Law Program at the University of Colorado Law School. The event will offer an inspiring talk from Walter Echo-Hawk, author, attorney, and president of the Pawnee Nation Business Council, and associated activities to encourage Boulder Indigenous Youth and allies, especially high school and undergraduate students, to learn about the human rights of Indigenous Peoples through the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Students will have the chance to learn and ask questions about the importance of asserting Indigenous peoples’ rights while also developing social media graphics and posters to educate others and become connected to the Global Indigenous Youth Movement! The event will inspire some Boulder Indigenous Youth to attend law school and to become activists and advocates themselves. The event will be catered by Tocabe: An American Indian Eatery.

For additional information about Indigenous Peoples Day, including event details, visit the city’s website. For more information about the city's Fort Chambers – Poor Farm Management Plan project, visit the project webpage. City of Boulder staff extend their gratitude to representatives from Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, the Northern Arapaho and the Northern Cheyenne who came to Boulder in late July to begin providing city Open Space and Mountain Parks staff input and feedback on the development of the plan.