Salem’s fifth celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day blended speeches and dance to honor Indigenous people across the region.
The day began with a memorial walk honoring the children buried at Chemawa Indian School in north Salem, followed by hours of dancing, speeches and performances at the Gerry Frank amphitheater in Riverfront Park.
Speakers talked about a pending Supreme Court case challenging the Indian Child Welfare Act, a 1978 law giving Native American families priority in foster care and child welfare cases for Indigenous children.
The event’s theme was “resistance was in existence.”
“Seeing the children run around, seeing our elders laugh and smile, seeing our dancers enjoy the music, and seeing our spectators being involved and wanting to understand our cultures and artists or how we live on a daily basis… it puts my heart at joy,” organizer Hannah Shooting Bear told Salem Reporter ahead of the event.
To see more performances and speeches from the event, visit the Salem Indigenous Now Facebook page.
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