ISD166 school board endorses Indigenous People’s Day

At their October 1st meeting the Cook County Schools ISD166 board voted for proclaiming October 12 Indigenous People’s Day.

According to Superintendent Beth Schwarz, 22 percent of the students at ISD166 are Native American.

She said that while the second Monday in October is technically a Federal holiday – Columbus Day – and the school can do nothing about changing that, “unfortunately the true history of Columbus has not been taught for many years.”

Citing evidence of the genocide of indigenous people as well as slave trading, she said there are a lot of issues with having a day memorializing someone who was not the hero he has been made out to be.

“We chose to make a proclamation -- very strong proclamation. We did state that we recognize the contributions of our American Indian friends and stated that we certainly hope that both the county and the city at some time follow suit.”

She added  that research indicates perhaps changing that date would make sense, and “given the fact we have an American Indian population and a reservation bordering part of our county, it certainly, on their request, was something we felt worth honoring.”