Indigenous Peoples’ Day proclamation issued by Joe Biden, who is first US president to do so

“The contributions that Indigenous peoples have made all through historical past — in public service, entrepreneurship, scholarship, the humanities, and numerous different fields — are integral to our Nation, our tradition, and our society,” Biden wrote within the proclamation Friday. “At the moment, we acknowledge the numerous sacrifices made by Native peoples to this nation — and acknowledge their many ongoing contributions to our Nation.”

Biden additionally marked a change in fact from earlier administrations in his proclamation marking Columbus Day, which honors the explorer Christopher Columbus. In that proclamation, the President acknowledged the demise and destruction wrought on native communities after Columbus journeyed to North America within the late 1500s, ushering in an age of European exploration of the Western Hemisphere.

“At the moment, we additionally acknowledge the painful historical past of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities. It’s a measure of our greatness as a Nation that we don’t search to bury these shameful episodes of our previous — that we face them actually, we carry them to the sunshine, and we do all we will to handle them,” Biden wrote.