This Monday, the Gustavus Community will commemorate the Indigenous Peoples Day on campus for the second year.

“Building Bridges will support our Native brothers and sisters in their struggles for recognition, respect, and autonomy.” – Elizabeth Long

The initiative began more than a year ago, when Student Senate decided to poll the student body on whether they wished to commemorate Indigenous People’s Day, Columbus Day, both, or neither. Overwhelmingly, students said they preferred to solely celebrate Indigenous People’s Day. After significant debate, Student Senate approved the commemoration of Indigenous People’s Day along with nine other major national holidays.

“We are one of the few colleges in the country that has made the decision to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day”, Assistant Director of the Diversity Center Kenneth Reid said.

This year, Student Senate is collaborating with Building Bridges to sponsor a talk by Mankatoan Scott Zellmer, who will discuss his personal experience of being taken in as part of an Indigenous tribe. Zellmer’s presentation, at 6:30 in the Heritage Room on Monday, Oct. 10, will be followed by a showing of the TPT Documentary, “The Past is Alive Within Us: The US. – Dakota Conflict” at 7 pm, cosponsored by the Diversity Center. The documentary and talk will explore this area’s bloody and painful history of interaction between caucasians and Indigenous peoples, culminating in the U.S. – Dakota War.

The war culminated in the largest mass execution in the history of the U.S., with 38 Indigenous persons hung in Mankato on Dec. 26, 1862. 264 more sentenced to death but saved only by the personal intervention of President Lincoln.

“We are in a town which was home to indigenous peoples, and in our backyard was one of the greatest slaughters of indigenous peoples,” Reid said. “We need to know what happened on our land.”

In addition to helping students to be better informed about this area’s sordid past with regards to Indigenous Peoples, Building Bridges will be sponsoring several events related to contemporary Native American issues, in particular the Standing Rock movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline. The NoDAPL movement, as it is frequently referred to, has brought environmentalists and indigenous rights activists together in opposition to what they regard as both an illegal infringement on the sovereignty granted to Native Peoples under the reservation system, and a grave danger to the environment.

“We firmly oppose the building of a pipeline that will not only endanger the lives and land of the Sioux tribe, but will permanently destroy the ecosystems and resources it intrudes upon,” Building Bridges Co-Chair Elizabeth Long said.

Building Bridges will hold both protests and a social media campaign on Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The organization is encouraging pipeline opponents to pose in front of Old Main with messages showing solidarity with protectors at Standing Rock, and will be tabling in front of the cafeteria to publicize the food and resource drives supporting the peace camps.

On Tuesday, a homily will be held in support of Indigenous Peoples Day, and Building Bridges will host an informal workshop about the Dakota Access Pipeline and the intersectional movement which has sprung up in opposition to it.

“Building Bridges will support our Native brothers and sisters in their struggles for recognition, respect, and autonomy,” Long said.