Indigenous Peoples Day 2018

Monday, October 8, 2018

Please join the Iowa Commission on Native American Affairs as Governor Kim Reynolds proclaims Monday, October 8, 2018, as the State of Iowa’s inaugural Indigenous Peoples Day. Governor Reynolds will sign the proclamation on October 8, 2018, at 3:35 p.m. at the State Capitol, 1007 E. Grand Ave., Room 109, Des Moines, Iowa. 

This day recognizes the land now known as the State of Iowa, named in recognition of the Iowa Tribe, as well as the language used to identify many of our lakes, rivers, cities, counties, schools, buildings and considerably more, and reflects the inherent imprint of Indigenous Peoples. This land has been home to Indigenous People since time immemorial, and without whom, the building of this state would not have been possible.

The State of Iowa joins a growing number of government entities across the country that have recognized the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples Day, in order to promote appreciation, reconciliation, understanding, friendship and continued partnerships among all of its people and the Indigenous Peoples of this land.

In celebration of Indigenous People’s Day, the Des Moines Art Center has commissioned a poster to honor Native land through a visual land acknowledgment. The Art Center celebrates Indigenous People’s Day and acknowledges that the land on which we gather is the traditional, ancestral, and unceded land of the Iowa Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma, and the Meskwaki Nation of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi.

These posters are designed by artist Dawson Davenport, a graphic designer and member of the Meskwaki Nation. They will be installed in the museum lobby located at Des Moines Art Center, 4700 Grand Ave., Des Moines, Iowa, throughout the week of Indigenous People’s Day (Monday, October 8 – Sunday, October 14, 2018) to recognize indigenous people and to create public awareness of the history of the land.  

In partnership with the Des Moines Art Center in honoring Native land, we invite you to share these publicly. Please come to the museum and take a poster!

Visit this link for more information https://www.facebook.com/events/2124302124564575/.