National Indigenous Peoples Day

Indigenous Peoples Day is celebrated on the second Monday of October and is meant to uplift and recognize the history and contributions of Indigenous People and the Tribal Nations. UCI stands with its Indigenous community. 

The University of California, Irvine, campus is located on the homelands of the Kizh (Gabrieleño), Acjachemen (Juaneño) and Payómkawichum (Luiseño) peoples, who are the original stewards of the land colonially known as Irvine, California. This region extends from the Santa Ana River to Aliso Creek and beyond.

As a land grant institution member, we acknowledge these Indigenous Peoples as traditional land caretakers who, in the face of settler colonialism, continue to claim their place and act as stewards to protect their ancestral lands as they have for the past 8,000 years. Additionally, these lands have been shaped by Latino, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipino and Chinese laborers who have built roads and railroads and worked California crop fields, as well as the African Americans in the Civilian Conservation Corps that helped make (southern) California National Parks what they are today.

Please take a moment to consider and acknowledge the colonial devastation of stolen land, genocide, and forced labor that founded much of the social and economic infrastructure upon which we currently live, work and prosper. We also consider the many legacies of violence, displacement, migration and settlement that bring us here today.

To learn more refer to the following sites. 

https://www.ala.org/aasl/advocacy/promo/indigenous-peoples-day 

https://blog.nativehope.org/why-indigenous-peoples-day-matters