Opinion: Let’s Celebrate One Of America's Newest Holiday

Is the slaughter of thousands of people, destruction of culture, thievery of land, and near extinction of one of the world’s oldest languages not enough to have a day off? Apparently, Woodstock Union High School doesn’t think so.

The relatively new addition of Indigenous People’s Day has allowed many Native American peoples the opportunity to celebrate their culture in positive ways, pay homage to their fallen ancestors, and gain a new understanding of the culture which by most means has been lost to them. Many schools around the state and nation recognized these ideals and allowed students the day off to give scholars the opportunity to appreciate the culture of the Indigenous American people. Some of these schools include: Rutland High School, Windsor High School, Hartford High School, Sharon Academy, OxBow High, and Burlington High School among others.

Woodstock, on the other hand, had a different thought process.

To the administration, it was apparently more valuable for students to watch a 3-minute video on Indigenous American music in an advisory circle than to allow them a day to consider the beneficial contributions of Native American culture. In addition to the inconceivably short video, students were also shown a single quote and question to talk about for 5 minutes. Granted the exercise was educational and a slightly informative experience, however, it invited a lot of students to ask the question: “ Could we have learned more ?” The answer is: yes.

For other holidays, Woodstock has spent large amounts of time and dedication to designing meaningful activities/assemblies for students to participate in. Comparatively little to none of this energy is reciprocated for Indigenous People’s Day. Woodstock consistently has a Veterans Day assembly which, while it should be appreciated, is arguably just as important as Indigenous Peoples Day. Students have participated in an assembly annually since before I started middle school over 5 years ago. In addition, the school frequently holds ‘Best Wednesday’ assemblies on a monthly basis. With these assemblies comes games, prizes, competitions and general student based activities. At some of these events the school spends large amounts of money with the intention of entertainment which, while this is important, should not trump education on important issues.

At the most recent Best Day assembly held on October 27th, the school had the superintendent and HR team appear in inflatable dinosaur costumes. This while incredibly entertaining, left students slightly confused. “Of course it's important to have a fun spirit fueled assembly but it left me thinking why don't we put as much effort into other types of assemblies for important holidays like Indigenous People’s Day which educates and provides information for the history of Native Americans,” Senior Brighton Martsolf-Tan said.

Other students have expressed similar concerns. Some even took it as far as skipping school in order to promote awareness for the poorly represented holiday. Many believed that the lack of representation was: “disturbing”. Students generally appreciate the opportunity to be exempt from school because it means a lack of work or stress, however to many, Indigenous Peoples Day has more meaning. The representation of indigenous peoples has continually been overlooked because of a less visible form of oppression.

For example the town of Woodstock was formed on Abenaki land, this part of Vermont holding important spiritual significance because of its connection to surrounding forms of water like the White and Ottauquechee Rivers. To Indigenous peoples, the representation of their past struggle and reduction of land for spiritual practices, provides them a beneficial opportunity for representation and acknowledgment for the restriction of a lost culture.

Woodstock’s lack of appreciation for these peoples contributes to the issue continually brought forth by many Indigenous peoples. With issues like the recent apology for progressive sterilization by the Vermont Legislature ( The Eugenics Program ) it is important to recognize issues faced by Indigenous peoples of Vermont. I ask that if we as a school wish to be as progressive and politically sound as we say, then we must represent Indigenous Peoples Day as more than just an advisory subject. Students should be given the day for the opportunity to better understand the past and current issues which Vermont's Indigenous Americans have faced.