Indigenous Peoples' Day

✨2026 Indigenous Peoples’ Day Celebration ✨

Answering the Call of our Ancestors

📅 Monday, October 12, 2026
🕠 Doors open: 5:30 p.m. (with dinner service)
🎤 Program: 6:00–8:00 p.m.
💃 Jam + dancing: 8:00 p.m.–late

📍 Location: Lummi Nation School
2334 Lummi View Dr, Bellingham, WA

Please join our local community in celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day. This year’s theme is: Answering the Call of our Ancestors. This year our young people will be taking the stage and making meaning of this year’s theme. What is the calling from our previous generations and how do we answer their message? 

This year's event will be joined by multiple Native youth Councils from around Whatcom County. Student speakers and performers from Lummi Nation School, Nooksack Education Department, Bellingham School District and Western Washington University. We will enjoy a community dinner catered by local caterer Seawolf Surf n Turf managed by local business owner Cesarita Ballew. Singing, dancing and jam out to follow the program! All drum groups are welcome to join this Coastal Jam. Host drum group for the Jam is the Lhaqtemish Singers. 

🌎 All are welcome! 

This family-friendly, intergenerational community event for everyone in Whatcom County. This event is also inviting students from:

  • Lummi Nation School
  • Northwest Indian College
  • Whatcom Community College
  • Bellingham Technical College
  • Nooksack Education Programs
  • Bellingham School District
  • Ferndale School District
  • Western Washington University

🍽️ Dinner, community, student speakers, music, and dancing — come celebrate with us!

2026 Indigenous Peoples’ Day flyer featuring a stylized Salish orca. Celebration on October 12 at Lummi Nation School. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with dinner, a program from 6–8 p.m., followed by music and dancing. Free and open to students and the community.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day Galleries

2023 Indigenous Peoples' Day

Several individuals stand near a podium as one participant helps another adjust a woven headband during a cultural presentation.
Dancers in traditional regalia perform on the floor of a large gathering hall during a 2023 Indigenous cultural event.
Crowd of community members receiving food and visiting together at an Indigenous cultural gathering in a wood-beamed hall.

2024 Indigenous Peoples' Day

Participants stand with blankets during a recognition ceremony at a 2024 community gathering.
Participants of all ages take part in a group dance activity during a 2024 cultural gathering.
Presenter speaks to a crowd during a cultural gathering in 2024.

2025 Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Speaker addresses attendees from a podium while holding a microphone.
Participants play hand drums and sing while audience members watch from the surrounding seating areas.
Dancers perform on the gym floor surrounded by attendees.

What is Indigenous Peoples’ Day and who celebrates it?

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a holiday celebrated on the second Monday of October in the United States, in lieu of Columbus Day. Indigenous Peoples’ Day, at its core, aims to celebrate and honor the past, present, and futures of Native peoples throughout the United States and acknowledges the legacy of colonialism, which has devastated Indigenous communities historically and continues to negatively impact them today. More importantly, however, Indigenous Peoples’ Day moves beyond the narrative of oppression and honors the histories, cultures, contributions, and resilience of contemporary Native peoples.

Acknowledgement

In gathering for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we acknowledge the important history that built what we enjoy today. In 1977, a delegation of Native nations to the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas, held in Geneva, proposed (and passed) a resolution to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In 1990, the Berkeley, California city council stood with Native communities and allies by establishing the first Indigenous Peoples’ Day formally acknowledged by a major U.S. city as a counter-protest to the upcoming 1992 quincentennial “celebration” of Christopher Columbus’ landing that was being planned in the Bay Area. In 2013, Whatcom Community College (WCC) organized by students and allies organized the first iteration of Whatcom County’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In 2014, Bellingham City Council member Roxanne Murphy proposed the establishment of Coast Salish Day that was passed unanimously. In 2017 WCC invited Bellingham Technical College, Northwest Indian College, and Western Washington University to co-collaborate in organizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day forming the growing coalition we enjoy today!

Supporting Partners

This event is sponsored by the Community Consortium for Cultural Recognition. Learn more at: Indigenous Peoples' Day. Many thanks to the partner organizations who contributed to this celebration, including: 

Blue stacked Western Washington University logo.
Ferndale School District logo with a stylized teal eagle
Bellingham Technical College Logo
Bellingham Public Schools, a collective commitment.
Yellow circle with an open book icon next to bold text reading "Bellingham Public Library"
Logo of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community with a stylized dolphin inside an octagon tied to a spear, next to bold text reading “Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.”
Stylized tribal art with black and red shapes forming an animal figure. Text above reads “Upper Skagit Indian Tribe.”
Chuckanut Health Foundation logo with a stylized heart and leaf icon beside the name. Tagline reads “Investing today for a healthier tomorrow.”
Whatcom Community College
City of Bellingham logo
Logo of Lummi Blackhawks with stylized text overlaying an eagle with spread wings
Logo of Puget Sound Energy with a teal rhombus containing the white letters “PSE” next to the gray text “Puget Sound Energy.”
Peace Health Logo
Northwest Indian College

All are welcome to join us for this celebration! AA/EO for questions, feedback, and accommodations please contact Tribal.Relations@wwu.edu #IndigenousPeoplesDay

Contact Information

simone-calais staley | she & her
Assistant Director, Lhaq’temish-ew’xw ets’e Xwlemi’ - House of Healing - Tribal Relations Office

Western Washington University

516 High Street, Bellingham WA 98225
staleys3@wwu.edu| VU 733 | 360-650-7404

I live and work on the homelands of the Lhaq’te’mish Lummi and Nuxwsá7aq Nooksack Peoples