Speaker 1: Thank you so much. I love it when our head of Parks and Rec says she likes to come in here because it's so much good happening here. We don't hear that very much, but thank you. I appreciate it. All right. Thank you all. Okay. So, Councilman Lopez, I hear you have a proclamation tonight as well. Can you read it?
Speaker 6: Yes. Thank you, Mr. President. Proclamation 16 DASH 0939. In observance of the first annual Indigenous People's Day in the city and county of Denver. Whereas the council, the city and county of Denver recognizes that the indigenous peoples have lived and flourish on the lands known as the Americas since time immemorial. And the Denver and the surrounding communities are built upon the ancestral homelands of numerous indigenous tribes. And. Whereas, the seasonal encampments of the Arapaho and Cheyenne, people along the banks of this Cherry Creek and South Platte River confluence gave bearing to future settlements that would become the birthplace of the Mile High City. And. Whereas, Colorado encompasses the ancestral homeland of 48 tribes and currently the city and county in Denver and the surrounding communities are home to the descendants of approximately 100 tribal nations. And. WHEREAS, the Council of the City and County of Denver recognizes and values the vast contributions made to our community through indigenous peoples knowledge, science, philosophy, arts and culture. And through these contributions, the City of Denver has developed and thrived. And. WHEREAS, Indigenous Peoples Day was first proposed in 1977 by a delegation of Native Nations to the United Nations sponsored International Conference on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations in the Americas. And. WHEREAS, on October 3rd, 2016, the Council of the City and County of Denver unanimously passed Council Bill 16. Oh, let me say that Council Bill 801 series of 2016 officially designating the second Monday of October of each year as Indigenous Peoples Day in Denver, Colorado. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver, Section one, that the Council of the City and County of Denver celebrates and honors the cultural and foundational contributions of indigenous people to our history. Past, present and future. I will continue to close gaps in equity and promote increased access to health care, housing, education, economic opportunity, and civil rights for all people. Section two. The city and county of Denver, Colorado, does hereby observe and proclaim October 10th, 2016, as Indigenous Peoples Day. Section three that the clerk of the city and county of Denver, Charlotte, affixed the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation, and that a copy be transmitted to the Denver American Indian Commission, the Denver Agency for Human Rights and Community Partnerships. The Denver Public Library. The City and County of Denver School. District Number one History. Colorado. The Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs. And the Governor of Colorado, John W Hickenlooper.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Councilman Lopez, your motion to adopt.
Speaker 6: I move that council proclamation 939 series of 2016 be adopted.
Speaker 1: It has been moved in second comments by members of council. Councilman Lopez.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Mr. President. Today. Well, today is a historic day. For the first time. In our history in Denver, we officially celebrate and we officially observe indigenous people stay.
Speaker 9: For the first time.
Speaker 6: And we we do that. We do that because indigenous people's history is American history and indigenous people's history is Denver history. It encompasses all. You know, I don't want to be too long because I last last last Monday. We introduced the bill. Not a made it official, an observation and it passed unanimously. 12 two zero. The bill was signed by our mayor, Michael Hancock. And it is now official. And.
Speaker 0: We do this.
Speaker 6: We celebrate Indigenous People's Day in Denver. As a badge of pride. As a badge of honor. A matter of respect. And. As a matter of self-determination. Because it has always been about self-determination. And you're right. To do so. And we do that. And as we honor and celebrate and observe Indigenous Peoples Day, it's important to remember that we do it.
Speaker 0: As.
Speaker 6: As Cesar Chavez famously said. Without the disrespect or contempt of any other culture.
Speaker 0: And that is truly.
Speaker 6: What the embodiment of this is. It's the the celebration, the preservation of one's own culture that does not require.
Speaker 0: The contempt.
Speaker 6: Or disrespect of another's. And that's a difference. With this holiday. With this observation, as we do so, as we honor all of our brothers and sisters, whether they speak our languages or not, whether they have last names like ours or not. Well, they. They look different than us or not. And that's the spirit in which this proclamation is read tonight. And I am proud. To be able to sit here from the dais to read this proclamation. And read a part of Denver history. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Well said. Okay. We we got a we we have some more folks speaking. I think a lot of you will be speaking. See, I got a lot of clapping to do. Councilwoman Ortega.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Mr. President. First of all, I want to make sure that my name is added to the proclamation. I'm not going to repeat all the comments that I made last week. I want to thank Councilman Lopez and his staff for working with the community in bringing this forward. I think this is very important that we honor and recognize the original settlers in Colorado and the Denver community who help shape this community. You heard me talk a little bit about some of the the streets down in the central Black Valley that are named after some of our native chiefs or their wives. And I think continuing to reflect the culture and history in our books, in our classrooms, in so many of the things that we do in this community, you know, people get to go to the march. POWELL And enjoy part of the culture that has continued, you know, after all these generations. And to see that the culture continues to be passed on from the elders to, you know, the two and three year olds that you see dancing on the floor of the Coliseum at the Powell. But, you know, it's so much more than that. And as Councilman Lopez talked about, the some so many of the disparities that still exist. We have a long way to go, but this is a huge step in just honoring the contributions that have been made by our native brothers and sisters. So thank you, Mr. President.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Ortega. Looks like we don't have any other comments. This is this is an incredible day for us and in the city of Denver. I feel like a lot of times we say this is the first time in history, but this truly is the first time in history in the city of Denver. And its setting, it's setting a representation for the rest of the state and even the nation. And we are, you know, most of council. We are we're just so humbled to be a part of this. So thank you, Councilman Lopez, for leading in this effort. It it brings me to that quote, you know, if not us, who. If not now, when? And so we're standing up for a lot of folks who thought that their names and their history would never be said again. But today we're saying it. So this is exciting. Madam Secretary, roll call.
Speaker 4: Lopez. I knew. Ortega. Sussman. Black eye. Clark. Espinosa. Flynn. Hi, Gilmore. Cashman. Hi. Can I. Mr. President.
Speaker 1: I please close the voting and announce the results.
Speaker 4: 12 Eyes.
Speaker 1: 12 Eyes. Proclamation 939 passes has been adopted. So, Councilman Lopez, are you going to bring up each and every individual to to celebrate this who we have in the audience?
Speaker 6: Well, we do. And there were the zoning might same as I'll do it. So we have a lot of folks in our community from the from members of the American Indian Commission here at the city, our community, Denver Public Schools, folks with definitions and folks with, you know, different agencies. So but I'm going to ask that the following individuals just please approach the microphone, stand together. And then we also have a couple of representatives from a couple of tribes. They're going to one offer a blessing, in some words, so she can. Mr.. CARNEY For us from the southern Utah nation. Mr.. Robert, I'm Robert Cross from Lakota. Mingo Flying Earth with the Denver. American Indian Commission may mean going to want to come with their cute little one. And then we also have some students from DPS if you want to come forward. Yeah. So why don't we? We start with just an introduction. The students want to introduce yourselves. What school you go to? And then they mingle.
Speaker 1: And then you want the students to go first. Student. Okay.
Speaker 10: No. But you need the students.
Speaker 1: He wants the students to go first.
Speaker 6: You want to take you.
Speaker 10: Okay, you guys go.
Speaker 1: Young people come over here to the mic. There you go.
Speaker 2: Compared to our stay home, it's easy to understand that the Jews are by Joni Mitchell immensely happy. Todd achieving a touch he international Oglala Lakota him after south high school blah blah. Good evening everyone. My name is Joni. I am told. Keep me in touch. You need to know I am the current Denver Indian Center princess and I attend South High School. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 2: McCarthy. Hello, my relatives. My name is Angel Locke. I'm from the Standing Rock Reservation. I'm part a student board of Education. I go to Denver Center for International Studies.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: A.J.. Josephine, Ky. Hello, my name is Josephine King, and I go to Denver just as high school. And I'm from Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Speaker 4: And the Joy Lynch. Hello, I'm Joy Lynch. I'm Navajo and I.
Speaker 8: Go to East High School.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Hello. My name is from a commercial I attend. I'm a senior at West Early.
Speaker 0: College of.
Speaker 6: Navajo, Oglala Lakota, Nez Perce.
Speaker 1: Beautiful.
Speaker 6: I mean.
Speaker 2: Hello. Good evening, everyone. My name is May Ming were flying earth. I am the co-chair of the Denver American Indian Commission. I am Lakota. Dakota Anishinaabe. R.E.M. Autumn. And I have to say that as an indigenous person, I'm very proud to be here tonight. I'm the very first official Indigenous Peoples Day in the city and county of Denver. I first just want to acknowledge my elders who are going to be speaking here, and I apologize for speaking ahead of you. I want to thank Councilman Lopez and and his service around here for all of their work on this effort. I want to thank each one of you, city council members, for your unanimous vote last week. That sends a message to our local community, to the nation, that indigenous people's voices have been heard and will be continue to be heard in the city and county of Denver. I also want to acknowledge our community members who have been a part of this effort for years and that this comes at the at the hard work and sometimes resistance, civil disobedience of our community members to make their voices heard. And I want to thank them for all of their work and for being here in support this evening as well. I think we've talked about what this indigenous peoples day can represent for the for the city and county of Denver. And I think it's an exciting thing and it's an important thing, as both City Councilman Lopez has mentioned, visibility is important in telling our stories. As Councilwoman Ortega has mentioned, telling telling an accurate portrayal of what has happened here is important to include our our voices in the history of this city. And and I think the more often we can talk about those things, the better we are as a community that the more often we can talk about our leaders who have come before us, Little Raven, any any indigenous names that we can repeat in our daily, daily lives was all the numerous tribes that have our name for our streets, and that we also think about how some of the other things around us continue to perpetuate negative aspects of our history and that we need to think about what those things are like. Having street names after army people who slaughtered people at San Creek. Those think those things aren't aren't appropriate. We don't want we don't want to continue those things. I think it's important for our children that we now have indigenous people stay in Denver, that I'm so proud that my daughter will have this as part of her life and her growing up in the Denver area Indigenous Peoples Day. And so that we can all take, take, take a page from from each of you today and voting on that and that we can continue to educate our community members on indigenous issues. I just also wanted to very briefly say I'm a recent resident of the Denver area. I grew up in the Dakotas on the Standing Rock Reservation. Indigenous Peoples Day to me represents a time when we can start to talk about some issues that affect our communities, some critical issues, because as much as we would like to just celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day for all the positive things, there are still negative things that are happening in our communities, are still under attack. We're still subjected to environmental racism, we're still subjected to racist mascots. There's a whole host of things that we still need to confront and face, and I hope that Indigenous Peoples Day can be a way to start those conversations and to bring those issues to the forefront. So tonight, I would like to ask anyone who's from Standing Rock, anyone who's been to Standing Rock, who has stood with my community in opposition to this pipeline. There's a proposed pipeline, 1200 mile pipeline. That's an oil pipeline that is proposed to pass through our ancestral lands and under our precious Missouri River. That is I understand that's also a watershed to Denver. So, you know, the water is important. And and anyway, tonight, I would like to ask anyone who's here to stand with me. And we accept this proclamation tonight in solidarity with Standing Rock. Thank you. Thank you, Paloma.
Speaker 0: Thank you.
Speaker 6: KENYON, Mr.. Mr. Frost and Mr. Cross, if you want to introduce yourselves and do your thing. Yeah.
Speaker 11: Okay. I want to welcome each and everyone here from the Denver community, Mr. President and the rest of the council people. I like to commend each and every one of you speaking on behalf of our community here, the Native American community. My name is Kenny Frost. We're the original inhabitants of Colorado of this great nation. And it brings great pleasure to be able to address each and every one of you face to face. And thank you for the courage that you have displayed by passing this today. This is a historic occasion. When we look at things historically, we sometimes do not understand the magnitude of historic. Each and every one of you will be written in the history books. Just to give you an idea, and all those who are here get to be a part of that because they got to see the governing body of Denver doing the right thing. And I thank you. The community thanks you. It's been a long time coming. The council people from the past have tried but didn't go. Now it did. With your courage and strength. And one of the things I want to do as an as the youth spiritual leader for my tribe and for the youth tribe in Utah, as well as for other tribal nations that I help assist in Sundance is and as a Sundance chief, is that after I'm done, Robert is going to say a prayer to close everything up. The reason he's going to say a prayer and sing a song is that each and everything will be good for all of us. That when we go home, we're going to carry that warm feeling that we have here and you get to take that home to your families and that will spread. The other thing that I want to mention is I was up in Newark when the dogs were attacked, attacked our people from the beginning. So for a little over a month and a great many challenges. So I'm going to ask each and every one of you now to take another step. Encourages, like cities of Seattle, cities that just last week, Los Angeles city government passed a proclamation supporting Standing Rock and helping fight for that one. I'm asking you and challenging you to also stand up for that water, because believe it or not, that Missouri River would have boring under. Underneath is the Ogallala Aquifer. It goes through South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, eastern end of Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma. It's a huge, massive freshwater area there. And that's going to affect our state, particularly the people who depend on wells for drinking water. Once that water gets in that Ogallala Aquifer, it's impossible to clean. So that's why cities and great cities across the United States are passing proclamations in order to stand with Standing Rock. Because we all depend on water once it goes down into the Missouri. Into the Mississippi. 10 million people from the Missouri. 10 million. So you're talking upwards of 25 million people being affected and our water is sacred. I have a background in natural resources and I help my tribe. We helped set up the Natural Resource Division, which we've done really well, providing for tribal members back home. And one of the things I've learned is that our water Denver depends on fresh water. You get your water on the other side of the mountains. That's where you want it comes in comes from the founding fathers of Denver. Were smart. They got the water from over there and piped it through the pipes to come here to Denver. I don't know if many of you know that. I don't know if the community knows that. But that's where you get your water is on the east western slope. And that's how important water is, because those founding fathers, your predecessors were smart, just like you guys as you guys decided to do the right thing and we're all equal. There's one thing that we that we must remember, no matter where we come from, no matter what our belief system is, no matter how we believe or think or pray, there's one thing that ties us together as one people. To love happiness, providing for families and just living in harmony and peace with one another. And by you passing this, we can continue to do that. The next thing is we support our representative science and push it through a state as one nation, as one city , as one group. We can do this along with the community to help pass it so that we can abolish this one day and and everybody come together as one. And let's get rid of hatred, prejudice, and work as a community, as one people as it should be. So I commend you and thank you for listening to me. And thank you, Denver Community for being here tonight. A great many people have passed on and how much they would have loved to have been here to see this. So thank you.
Speaker 2: Much.
Speaker 10: When we talk with you, first of all, I want to extend my hand to all of you and thank you for what you did. That's a great honor to stand here and talk to you. My Lakota walk like, okay, La Lila. Motion capture the convicted killer. La la, la, la. Hatcher my country wants to know. We all killer. You know what? Well, slow, huh? We are taking you to a calculated Lila. Lila, duck walk. Why Chinchilla? Why don't you let your hedgerow walk? You kill the Chicago killer. You know, whatever she says here, you know about her people and what they need up there. That's where our prayers and that's where it's going. So we want we want to keep that pressure going that way. You know, and they tell us there's a there's a story, you know, that goes one time we were we were underground. We were underground. And when this shook wanted to talk, I came down or this wolf came down here and brought us back from the ground underneath the earth. And as as he brought us forward, as he brought our first one forth, who was named Takagi, the first one eventually took out. He went back under to bring his people back up. But when he came back up, he was met by two people. One was called the economy, and the other one was called the new writer. And each time he told me and he knew he did play a part in our history constantly. They always played a part in our history. And when when Columbus came, they came. They were there. I knew he, too, and told me told me he's. He's a trickster. He tricks us. In Inuktitut. She's a beautiful woman on one side and. Bad looking woman on the other. They call her now easy. She brings in now easy. And it's not necessarily like that. But what it represents is the two powers of male female working together in a lot of ways, positively or negatively. And so when when Columbus came and the first tall guy, he was standing there waiting for him on the shore, there must have been a lot of anxiety that took place. Because I'm sure that the first one that seen this this man or this person coming coming to shore also recognize the fact that we were in for a lot of different things coming in. And most of those were probably negative that he thought about. You know, and probably wondering what was going to go on. So when when these things come where we can stand up and honor something that's positive, even though it's small like this, you know, my children went to school and then. It seemed like once a week for a long time there. Every every once a week for a long time there was going to school to have to address some matter or another that had to do with why the school system wasn't doing what they had to do to make sure everybody everything was in balance within the educational system. And it got to the point where I had to eventually pull my daughter out of school, you know, because of things that were, are and are still here in Colorado that are really damaging for us native peoples like Squaw Mountain, things like that, you know, that come about all the time. And, and so I took them to a different school out in the country, and it was the same out there. It was a lot of struggle, you know. And so I had to go into the school system and find that the native kids here have their own school system, but a lot of us don't. A lot of the school system here don't realize that they have their own way of being taught through their school system that they're supposed to the school system's supposed to utilize for our children, native children. We're not really considered minorities. We considered our own culture. A lot of us are solitary. So a lot of times, you know, we go into our school system and start looking at what really we're supposed to be taught. It's not there for us in these European descended school systems. You know, it's not there for us. A lot of times we're supposed to be taught in the circle, you know, and a lot of times those things aren't available for us. So it gets confusing for our children. So it's really important that which is proclamation and these things that go on that you people, you know, and all your happiness for doing this. And I really appreciate this with all my heart because it's a struggle to go out there and have to stand your ground as a Native American. And even when you go out your door, you're living in a place that's not yours no more. You know, you feel like a foreigner in your own homeland. People look at you like that. You know, I can't dress like this every day. I'd love to, but I can't because people, you know, will start connecting something to me. And it's not it's not fair in that way. So for my children, for all these children here and these young people and these ones here that stood their ground for years now fighting for this proclamation, all these people, every one of them come out here every year, no matter what the weather's like, no matter how cold it is, they're all out there doing their best to make sure that these things get passed. You know, for all them, you know, we're here. We're here for them. And we're going to stand our ground not only here, because now that you've done this and all, you live within this capital. You live. You surround this state capital here. Now, you guys could join us and we could all go to the state capital and we could do it right. I think that. Right. You know what we're supposed to do together? You know. So that's what we need. We need you to join us. And let's go to the state capitals together and make them in a real positive, spiritual way. Change their minds because our children, they need that, you know, they really do. They need that, you know, and I'm tired. I'm tired of seeing my children from all the way back. I have to go through this. It's not fair to them. It's not me as a child. It wasn't private to me either. And it's not fair to her. No, no, no. You know. And we have to stand our ground every day of our lives. So this is beautiful for one day. But now give us two days. Give us three days. Give us a lifetime. You know, that's all we ask for. You know, and that's all we've asked for from the day that is told me and that nugget that showed up on our shore. You know. That double faced and that trickster. When they showed up on our shore, all we asked for was healing and health and health, you know, for all of us. Oh, man. And that's all we're still asking for to this day. Nothing has changed. As Tanya, who was here with me last year. Last time. And one of our leaders, Russell Mead. Who stood his ground from the beginning. You know, I stand here for them. And I was called here to stand by another one. You know. And that's why I'm here. I'm here because these gentlemen, these are relatives of mine. And this man here is Mr. Lopez. And the other one, you know, they're both my relatives because they're fighting that same fight. You know, takes relatives to do that. It doesn't take people that have power, takes people that can share to do that. I appreciate that. I think all you wind up that you actually think. Thank you. Shake my hand. Oh.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 0: Mm hmm.
Speaker 9: In the song. In person.
Speaker 10: Because as natives we defend the earth. You know, everything we do is about the Earth. It's not about manmade law. It's about creators law. And that's defending the Earth. I want to see you defend yourself. Where you work.
Speaker 9: Well. What? What?
Speaker 1: You. I went. What?
Speaker 10: Okay. Good to be with you.
Speaker 9: Yoo hoo hoo hoo hoo. Oh. Whoa, whoa, whoa. But what?
Speaker 6: What?
Speaker 9: But what? Oh, gosh. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Ho! Oh!
Speaker 10: Let me try the turkey. Now. Yellow. Hey, hey, hey, hey.
Speaker 0: Ooh.
Speaker 10: Gee, my car. No, we're changing your.
Speaker 0: Whoa!
Speaker 10: What are you. Ha ha! Whoo hoo! Oh, thank you. The one thing I want to reiterate here is that our children are the most important to us. We call them Conejo. And when those children go to go to these schools and they hear that Denver did this, you know, they're going to they're going to make a bigger effort to help themselves, I'm sure of it. You know, because when you go to these schools and you're always hearing condemning of your peoples, you know, it makes it hard to keep going back. I know this because my children, they they don't want to go to these schools, you know, and it's not because they don't like the schools or the people are the teachers. It's just the curriculum that's involved in it. So we need to make a big change, you know, in order for all of us to realize that who we are as human beings, we're not we're not anything more or less than that, you know, and we've got to get over that fact that, you know, history is there and history has to be looked at. We can't be denying it. And that's what we're doing. You know, we try to cover up Turtle Island. That's what this country's name is. Originally, Turtle Island, Macaque. Q And so you guys try to cover that up too much, you know? And we got to bring that back. We got to bring back the true history of this land. And, you know, like up here at Red Rocks, that's a sacred site to us. And yet we can't go up there and share in that place in a sacred way. You know, that was fought over all the way up to the late 1800s. And then they finally chased out those warriors. But they they fought for that place because it's a sacred site. So I was just saying, you know, we have many sacred sites here on our relatives homeland here, all of us. All 16 sacred sites. 16 different nations. So I just want to say thank you, though. Oh, thank you.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Lopez wants to present all of you with the proclamations.
Speaker 6: I just wanted to present this proclamations. Take.
Speaker 0: I mean, what.
Speaker 10: I wanted to think when I was growing up. But then I figured I'd get it all.
Speaker 6: So I.
Speaker 1: Want to do this.
Speaker 10: Because this represents the blood of my ancestors for all they fought for. Well. Oh. Hmm. You know, history. To get one little thing done. You know one of the thing. But all of you have done you know, this is their blood. This is their acceptance. You know, all I can do is just cry, cry for them, you know?
Speaker 6: DUCKWORTH That's also the the ordinance that we passed last. Last week as well, too. Thank you. Thank you for coming.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 11: Thank you all for doing this. It's the right thing. And we work together from this day forward.
Speaker 1: Thank you, everyone. Thank you for coming this evening. We will. This will be a night definitely to remember. And we hope that other cities follow suit in our state as well. Thank you. Now, Madam Secretary, this is going to be a tough transition, but will you please read the resolutions?
A proclamation in observance of the first official Indigenous Peoples' Day in the City and County of Denver.