Indigenous Peoples Day

Hundreds of people came together in events over the long weekend in Boston and Newton to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day and to call on the governor and legislature to make it a statewide holiday, to improve education for Native students and celebrate Native history in public schools, and to ban Native mascots, among other demands.

The Indigenous Peoples Day (IPD) Newton Committee began circulating a petition April 1 calling on the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) to change the date of the Boston Marathon. The effort came after the City of Newton denied the group a permit to use a desired park for their first Indigenous Peoples Day celebration on Oct. 11, 2021.