Long Island events celebrate 1st official Indigenous Peoples Day

In heart-wrenching testimony, members of the Shinnecock Indian Nation told their stories of truth at a virtual event Monday night.

A few hours earlier in Bay Shore, a multicultural organization kicked off a reading project focused on the literary works of an esteemed American Indian poet.

Both events celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day, proclaimed last week by President Joe Biden as a way to celebrate "our diverse history and the Indigenous peoples who contribute to shaping this Nation."

The virtual multiracial event that included Shinnecock members, "Land Back and the Third Reconstruction: A Truth Commission," was hosted by the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and other faith and community leaders.

Speakers, both somber and hopeful, discussed the brutality of colonialism, forced religion, genocide, stolen land, lack of a full telling of history, loss of language, and general injustice.

"We were given a system that was designed to fail," said Rebecca Genia, a member of the nation, during her testimony. "It was designed to steal our land, so we have a lot of work to do. And we're going to continue to do this work."

The event kicked off with ritual songs from the nation as well as one from the civil rights movement from the 1960s. Organizers said the focus was to have a forum for "testifiers" to tell their truth with a goal of working toward reconciliation and a call for action.

While there was detectable sadness and frustration — even anger, each speaker was clear to say they did not want sympathy, but the understanding and help of the greater community to right the wrongs of the past that have led to current disparities.

"I'm very proud of who I am and I'm very proud of where I came from," said Jennifer E. Cuffee-Wilson, a nation elder. "My people are tired, very very tired. And our ancestors have been crying to us. And we have been working so hard to make sure that hears tears of joy, not tears of sadness."

According to organizers, the Shinnecock Nation, along with other indigenous communities across the country, are disproportionately impacted by poverty, systemic racism, environmental devastation, militarism, and religious nationalism. They are also engaged in an ongoing struggle to defend their sovereignty and land rights.

"Because of the history of this country the truth hurts," said Rev. E. West McNeill, executive director of the Labor Religion Coalition of New York State, and chair of the New York State Poor People's Campaign. "And yet that it's better to have that pain than to keep holding on to that."

In Bay Shore Monday afternoon, National Endowment for the Arts grant winner Teatro Yerbabruja kicked off a 7-month NEA BIG READ LONG ISLAND Project to celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Yerbabruja's grant is one of 61 awarded nationally and the only one for a Long Island project. The grant supports a Long Island communities reading program that focuses on the book selected from among the five offered by NEA. Yerbabruja’s NEA BIG READ LONG ISLAND will focus on "An American Sunrise," a collection of poems by Joy Harjo, the current, and first, indigenous United States Poet Laureate. Harjo is a member of the Creek/Muscogee Nation.