Residents propose official recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Lexington 

Residents Stephanie Ryan and Brent Maracle, both Native Americans, and Fran Ludwig, an educator and environmentalist, are leading a push to officially recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Lexington. LexObserver spoke with the group about why this change matters and what steps they are taking to make it happen.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Lauren: Stephanie and Brent, can you start by telling us a little about your personal cultural heritage and what it means to you? 

Stephanie: My name is Stephanie Stonefish Ryan. I’m an enrolled member of the Delaware First Nation on the Thames, Turtle Clan. My son Lincoln Rowan, an 8th grader at Clarke, is also an enrolled member. I didn’t actually live on the reservation, but my mother grew up there. I was born and raised in Manhattan, but we always would go back to the rez. 

Growing up, I didn’t really speak the language, and my mother acted like she didn’t really speak the language. When I was in my twenties, I was shooting something for the Smithsonian Museum (I’m a producer and cinematographer by profession), and was assigned to film the oldest Delaware speaker alive, who lived on a reservation in Oklahoma. And so I decided to take my mother. I’m setting up the camera, the lights and everything, and I hear people joking around the other room, speaking in Delaware. And it was my mother. I didn’t realize until my twenties that she was totally fluent the whole time.

It’s kind of cool — but then it was also sad that she felt she still had to hide it, right? So lately I’ve been involved in learning the language, and recently I took my son Lincoln to an event at Princeton University where we learned some of the language together. I am not fluent, and I think as language is lost, some of the teachings are lost as well. But I’m involved, and I’m learning some of the traditional teachings, and I really respect a lot of it. Lincoln can sing in Delaware. And he’s really happy that we’re doing this. I asked him if he had a message he’d like me to share, and he said, “I wish people knew more history about Native Americans. We are still here. Lexington recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a great start.”

Brent: I’m a pastor here in Lexington, but I grew up on the Akwesasne Territory of the Mohawk Nation and played on the Iroquois National Lacrosse team from 1989-1995. The territory is right along the St. Lawrence Seaway, bordered by Ontario and New York State, but it’s not part of the U.S. or Canada. In fact, we travel on our own passports. I grew up speaking the language, knowing stories, knowing songs. My children sing and regularly participate in the activities of our people, for instance we have our mid-winter Thanksgiving coming up — we have seven Thanksgivings outside of the U.S. Thanksgiving. 

Lauren: And Fran, how did you become interested in indigenous culture and in the effort to formally establish Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a holiday? 

Fran: I was formerly the K-5 science coordinator in Lexington and helped develop the Big Backyard program. One of the reasons why we do Big Backyard is to try to connect kids with the land, the environment, with ecosystems. For a long time I’ve been very interested in a Native culture and values because of my interest in the environment. As a member of the Lexington Climate Action Network, we’re looking for ways to move people to really look ahead, and I think the “seventh generation” thinking on the part of our indigenous neighbors is really important — the idea that the current generation should consider the impact of our actions seven generations into the future. Trying to reclaim some of these values is important.

Lauren: Did Native people live on the land that is now Lexington before the Colonial era? 

Brent: There are overlapping indigenous nations that are from this area — the Massachusett, the Wampanoag, the Nipmuc, the Natick, the Muncee, and the Abenaki stretching in. This history sort of gets glossed over because there weren’t actual homes that people were living in. There were villages that surrounded the area before the Colonists came, but there weren’t domiciles on the land that is now Lexington — it was farmed and used for natural wild plant harvesting and game. It was kind of the back forty of these other villages. A lot of people think Lexington started when Cambridge Farms was established and homes were built here, but actually there’s a deeper history and a significant history. 

Lauren: How many Native Americans currently live in Lexington? 

Brent: I think you are probably looking at them! There might be people with some sort of background, but in terms of being knowledgeable about their language, their stories, as far as I know it’s just our two families. 

Lauren: Growing up, you must have had Columbus Day off from school every year. How did that make you feel? Did you think about it back then? 

Stephanie: I actually did come from a family that had information and knowledge about our background. I understood that you don’t necessarily learn about it in school, but that’s okay, this is my life and it’s still real and it’s very legitimate. I’m the type that always did really well in school — let’s call it what it is, I was a nerd. I remember in third grade actually raising my hand to correct something the social studies teacher said. And then the next day my mother came in to further explain to the class what was left out of the story. 

Brent: I went to school off-territory, near Buffalo, NY, and I was actually sent out in the hall because I told my teacher Columbus didn’t actually discover America — we were already here. I guess I was pretty adamant about it, because I was left out in the hall for a while, and my father had to go in the next day and have a talk with the principal. 

Lauren: Times have changed, at least somewhat. I have to be honest — I thought Lexington already referred to the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day, because that’s what it says on the school calendar, and that’s what my kids were taught.

Fran: The school committee adopted that language, but the official name is still Columbus Day. There is a long list of Massachusetts communities that have declared Indigenous People’s Day, including many surrounding towns, but not Lexington. 

Stephanie: Joe Biden, our sitting president, was the first president to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day, in 2021, but it is still not recognized as an official holiday in all states.

Lauren: What’s the next step? 

Brent: We’re giving a presentation to the Select Board, which is due on Jan. 17 and we’ll present on Feb. 12, and then after that, it’s on to Town Meeting in March. 

Fran: If anyone wants to get involved, we are collecting letters of support, which you can send to me at fludwig12@yahoo.com by Jan. 16.