CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For some, the second Monday in October is just a day off work.
For others, it honors Christopher Columbus. But, for Indigenous people across America like Lumbee Tribe member Brittany Danielle Hunt, it’s a day to educate those around her.
“What we’re taught in school, 'In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue,' well, yes he did, but he also did a whole host of barbaric things to native people and Indigenous people,” says Hunt. “That needs to be discussed in classrooms and beyond that as well.”
Hunt admits that as a young girl herself, since she grew up surrounded by family and members of the Lumbee Tribe, she didn’t understand the misconceptions out there about Indigenous people until she went to college.
“People would ask me things like do you live in a teepee,” says Hunt. “Somebody told me they were surprised I wore shoes. They asked me if I lived on a reservation, if I had electricity, if I paid taxes.”
Those comments made her realize it wasn’t just the praise of Columbus that became a problem, but the lack of representation of Indigenous people in everyday culture.
“You won’t see any Indigenous television programs or movies,” says Hunt. “And if you do, they will depict us as being out west and in the past simultaneously. So, I think the biggest myths surrounding our people is that we are gone. We just don’t exist anymore in America, but that’s not true.”
A realization that led her to not only write a children’s book about growing up as an Indigenous child, but also start a podcast while working towards her PhD in Education at UNC Charlotte. Hunt’s podcast, called The Red Justice Project focuses on true crime involving Indigenous people in America. It is set to launch in November.
“My people are resilient, they’re brilliant, they’re innovators,” says Hunt. “We exist on a whole range of personalities and career paths as well.”
Paths that led fellow UNC Charlotte student and Lumbee Tribe member Vince Graham to push the university to recognize the day as Indigenous people’s day.
“It’s a good feeling, but the job is not done yet,” says Graham. “You know just because you have this piece of paper does not mean it’s done.”
Graham says he was inspired to do more, after attending a pow wow, a traditional Indigenous event, at UNC Chapel Hill years ago.
“That’s what kind of motivated me to say 'why can’t we have one of these in Charlotte,'” says Graham. “So I’ve actually been kind of driven but due to COVID, that’s going to be postponed.”
And while he hopes after COVID-19 he can bring the cultures of the Lumbee Pow Wows to Charlotte, in the meantime, he hopes to continue to educate others.
“We have to change what’s being taught in schools essentially, because Indigenous people need to be represented in our school systems,” says Graham.
As for Hunt, she’s glad to see universities like UNC Charlotte step up, but she says there’s still a ways to go.
“Declaring Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a great thing, It’s a great first step for any university or city to take towards the kind of restorative justice Indigenous people are seeking,” says Hunt. “But I do think now is the time to go beyond that. Particularly, in the kind of times that we are in America right now.”