NEBRASKA MARKS INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY WITH SCULPTURE, FLAG DEDICATIONS

LINCOLN- Last year, the Legislature approved a bill by State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks of Lincoln establishing the holiday.

President Joe Biden on Friday issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, lending a significant boost to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus toward an appreciation of Native peoples. The day will be observed on Monday, along with Columbus Day, which is established by Congress.

Several events were planned in Lincoln to mark the occasion. The day kicked off at 9 a.m. with a tribal flag dedication in the Nebraska State Capitol.

The flags of four federally recognized Nebraska tribes — Omaha, Ponca, Santee Sioux, and Winnebago —were placed in the Warner Chamber on the second floor of the Capitol building.

In addition, 27 flags from tribes with historic connections to Nebraska will be placed in the chamber on the 14th floor.

At 11 a.m., a sculpture of Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first Native American to earn a medical degree, was unveiled and dedicated on Heritage Plaza in Lincoln’s Centennial Mall.

Seeing the day of celebration come to fruition is bittersweet, Gaiashkibos a Nebraskan native and member of the Pona Tribe said. knowing that so many relatives and ancestors didn’t live to see it. But it’s a way to move forward and help with healing. For Gaiashkibos, the whole day was dedicated to those who lost their lives at the Genoa U.S. Indian Industrial School, a boarding school in Genoa, Nebraska.

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