Goshen’s Indigenous People’s Day Celebration held at First Fridays
GOSHEN, Ind. — Goshen’s First Fridays’ ‘Harvest Festival’ kicked off Friday evening, getting the community into the spooky season with fall crafts, seasonal food, and for the first time this year, a new tradition as Goshen’s Indigenous People’s Day Celebration joined the block party.
This is the fourth time the celebration has been sponsored by the city’s community relations commission.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is officially observed on Monday Oct. 13th, which is traditionally around the time the city would hold its celebration but decided to hold it early this year to reach more residents, starting dialogue and taking a pause to acknowledge the deep history the Potawatomi and Miami peoples have to the region.
“You know, a lot of times for us, I feel like in the past it’s been a controlled narrative so, for us to be able to get out and share our own story and a little bit about who we are personally, instead of reading it out of some history book or a story that somebody’s written, I think that’s the best way to kind of get out and do that,” said performer and citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians of Southwest Michigan, Skyler Alsep.