Today we celebrate and honor the Native American people and commemorate their history and cultures.
The holiday began in 1992 and was first recognized in Berkeley, California. In the years following, many other states and cities began recognizing the holiday. On October 8, 2021, President Joe Biden became the first U.S. President to formally recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a national holiday.
Indiana was originally home to many indigenous tribes, including the Miami, the Delaware, the Shawnee, and the Potawatomie, as well as many other smaller tribes. For several decades Kekionga, the capital of the Miami tribe, was located where Fort Wayne is now. Kekionga was an important trading post and center for many generations of the Miami people, until General Anthony Wayne selected the area to be the new U.S. fort. Eventually the Miami tribe lost control of the area’s portage to the United States Government, and by 1814 they were forced to cede the land of Kekionga. Shortly after, the land was redeveloped as the city of Fort Wayne.