Indigenous Peoples’ Day reimagines Columbus Day to celebrate the other side of European “discovery.” These celebrations advance concrete political causes, such as the re-establishment of land rights in the Piedmont.
The Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation (OBSN) trace their lineage to a confederacy of Siouan language groups that managed land in modern-day North Carolina and Virginia for centuries before colonization. Individual of the OBSN partnered with local organizations to host the first ever Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Alamance County, a ticketed event on Monday, Oct. 14 at 6 p.m. at the Haw River Ballroom in Saxapahaw. The celebration features an educational , culinary tasting, visual art, music, and storytelling.
Host Frank Stasio talks with two of the event organizers who are of the OBSN — Crystal Cavalier-Keck, the president of the North Carolina Democratic Party Native American Caucus, and A.yoni Jeffries, an Afro-Indigenous musician and artist based in Durham.
