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Indigenous Peoples Day celebration to be held at Grand Park in DTLA

CBS News Live
CBS News Los Angeles Live

A celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day will be from 4-8 p.m. Monday at Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles, featuring Indigenous performers, speakers and food. City Hall will also be lit up turquoise during the celebration.  

The celebration will be hosted by Los Angeles Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, a member of the Wyandotte Nation, who authored the 2017 ordinance that declared the second Monday in October in Los Angeles as Indigenous Peoples Day, replacing Columbus Day as a holiday on the city calendar.

Los Angeles County also created an Indigenous Peoples Day holiday in place of Columbus Day.

"As a citizen of the Wyandotte Nation and the first Native American on the Los Angeles City Council, one of my sacred duties as an elected official has been to increase the visibility, dignity and representation of Native Americans and indigenous people," O'Farrell said. 

"Los Angeles is built on indigenous land. The Civic Center itself stands where a Tongva village once stood. Replacing a day honoring a person who never even set foot in the United States -- and whose arrival in the Americas served as the catalyst for centuries of genocide against Native Americans -- with a day honoring First Nations and indigenous people -- was an important step for Los Angeles to take.

The 2017 ordinance also helped usher in the 2018 removal of the Christopher Columbus statue from Grand Park and O'Farrell's 2021 introduction of the Indigenous LAnd Initiative, a series of policies including a formal apology from the city to Native American tribes for instances of violence, mistreatment and neglect committed by the city or that the city was associated with.

City and county offices will be closed Monday, including libraries. Los Angeles County courts will be open. They were closed Sept. 23 for Native American Day.

Los Angeles Unified School District schools will be open. Metro buses and trains will run on a regular schedule, along with Metrolink trains.

In his proclamation declaring Monday as Indigenous Peoples' Day, President Joe Biden said, "On Indigenous Peoples' Day, we honor the sovereignty, resilience, and immense contributions that Native Americans have made to the world and we recommit to upholding our solemn trust and treaty responsibilities to tribal nations, strengthening our nation-to-nation ties.

"For centuries, Indigenous peoples were forcibly removed from ancestral lands, displaced, assimilated, and banned from worshiping or performing many sacred ceremonies. Yet today, they remain some of our greatest environmental stewards.

"They maintain strong religious beliefs that still feed the soul of our nation. And they have chosen to serve in the United States Armed Forces at a higher rate than any other group. Native peoples challenge us to confront our past and do better, and their contributions to scholarship, law, the arts, public service and more continue to guide us forward."

Columbus Day remains a federal holiday. There will be no U.S. Mail delivery and federal courts will be closed. Many banks are also expected to be closed.

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