By Eric Marks and Ty O’Neil
Several dozen people gathered Sunday, Oct. 11, for an Indigenous Peoples’ Day of Rage Against Colonialism, which was characterized by activities conveying emotions opposite of anger—including a river cleanup, drumming and prayers, speakers and a peaceful march to the statue of John Mackay located on the University of Nevada, Reno, campus.
The event was held one day prior to what’s traditionally been recognized as Columbus Day, and more recently proclaimed as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Orlando Ortiz—who creates hip-hop music and visual art under the name Sana Sana—was among those in attendance at the event.
Of his personal reasons for attending, Ortiz said, “I’m a man that believes in my spirit and in the spirit. But I also am very practical. And I feel like if you’re not praying with actions, you’re not praying for the right reasons.”
He noted that the day had begun with a river cleanup. He said that was important to him—and something he wants people outside of the Indigenous movement to understand.
“The only thing that’s going to save us a human species to live on this Earth indefinitely, like we used to prior to colonization, is we understand our intimate relationship with the earth and the water and the air—and that goes for everybody,” Ortiz said. “This is Indigenous People’s Day and an Indigenous movement—but everyone is indigenous to the planet.”
Stephanie Wyatt is a member of the Washoe Tribe of California and Nevada. She said she’d come to the event in large part to participate in the cleanup activities.
“We picked up a lot of trash today,” she said. “I think it’s important. This is our land, and we need to take care of it because the water flows to Pyramid Lake.”
She said she also thought the march to the Mackay statue was important and said that the university—as a land grant institution—needs to acknowledge and support the Indigenous community, whose lands its buildings were erected on.
Everett George helped organize the event. He said he wanted to educate people through it and took time to explain that despite the event being called a “day of rage” it didn’t mean—nor was it ever intended to—that participants would be breaking things or taking part in other destructive activities.
“What we mean by ‘rage’ is that we are passionate about this, that we are driven to see ourselves prosper,” George said. “We’re driven to see ourselves do better in this system that was set up for us to fail. We are determined to not do what America was built for us to do. We are going to do better. We’re going to be better. We’re going to survive—which we were never supposed to.”
