Lexington celebrated its first official Indigenous Peoples’ Day on Monday, with a nature walk, music, dancing and storytelling. Residents Stephanie Stonefish Ryan and Brent Maracle, both Native Americans, and Fran Ludwig, an educator and environmentalist, lead the push to recognize the holiday, and Town Meeting voted in favor last spring.

The area we now call Lexington was once used by overlapping Indigenous nations including the Massachusett, the Wampanoag, the Nipmuc, the Natick, the Muncee, and the Abenaki, who used the land for farming, foraging and hunting, Maracle told LexObserver. There wasn’t a village here, but there is a deep and significant history, he said.

Ryan says that recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day is especially important for the younger generation, including her son Lincoln, to feel recognized.

“I wish people knew more history about Native Americans,” Lincoln said. “We are still here. Lexington recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a great start.”

The team that worked to establish Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an official holiday in Lexington turned the Lex250 countdown clock on Lexington’s first Indigenous Peoples’ Day / Credit: Stephanie Stonefish Ryan
Indigenous Peoples’s Day nature walk at Paint Mine / Credit: Stephanie Stonefish Ryan
Redhawk Singers and Dancers performed at Lexington’s Depot / Credit: Stephanie Stonefish Ryan
Executive Dir of the Lexington Historical Society Anne Lee on left, with Artist Deborah Spears Moorehead / Credit: Stephanie Stonefish Ryan

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4 Comments

  1. Thank you Stephanie, Brent, and Fran! The Lexington Historical Society was honored to host the first Indigenous Peoples Day, and we plan to continue sharing the stories of all peoples who shaped our town.

    1. It’s always a pleasure to grown and share in relationship and knowledge. I appreciate the openness of the Lexington Historical Society. It’s a great reflection of the community of Lexington.

  2. Why was this Holiday placed on the same day as Columbus Day?
    it’s obviously that this was done to protest the idea of Columbus Day. But it creates a permanent divisive conflict repeating every year. Why not have Indigenous peoples day on another day so it can be celebrated without controversy?

  3. Thank you so much for working to make Indigenous People’s day an officially acknowledged day when we can take time out to learn about the many peoples who successfully stewarded this land for more than 20,000 years. I think regularly about the fact that I am here because of and benefit from a system that stigmatized those priceless subaltern knowledge pathways and purposefully drove them to the brink of extinction along with its people. The least we should do as those who benefit from these injustices directly or indirectly is use our unearned privilege to support measures to undo some of that harm and knowledge-loss. Thanks for everyone’s hard work, and I look forward to learning more each year on Indigenous People’s Day here in Lexington.

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