Indigenous Peoples Day

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day! Some people celebrate the second Monday in October as Columbus Day, and others believe that Columbus shouldn’t be honored for "discovering" America, since the indigenous people had been living in North and South America for centuries before Columbus arrived. Soon after Columbus made his famous voyage in 1492, the Spanish conquistadors found lots of gold and silver, and began to conquer the Native People and turn them into slaves.

Indigenous People's Day is an alternative, celebrating the original people and their descendants with powwows, dancing, Native American foods and crafts.

Agenda:
1. Journal:

Set an intention for the day- 

What do I wish for all people of the world?

2. Make fry bread:
Traditional powwow food!

3. Make a prayer stick:
A prayer stick is a Native American tradition- it’s a decorated stick made as a prayer or wish. Prayer sticks are decorated in many ways- sometimes painted, wrapped with strings, with feathers, beads and other objects attached; sometimes a small bag of sacred cornmeal is tied on.

Our wishes for all people:
A home, education, life, health, love, and peace

We each set an intention for our stick- something we wished for all people of the world, and we made small charms out of Fimo, to symbolize our wishes.

Then we cut sticks from the apple tree, carved them, painted them, wrapped them with string and yarn, and added beads and feathers.

Lastly, we tied on our charms, and smudged each stick with sage smoke while focusing on  our prayers. 

Then we each took our stick home to plant in the ground.