Indigenous Peoples’ Day - 2024
Abode proudly observes Indigenous Peoples’ Day, as we aim to honor Indigenous American peoples and their cultures.
The annual day – typically held on the second Monday in October – recognizes the contributions, histories, sacrifices, and resilience of Native Americans and Tribal Nations, among other Indigenous peoples. Although some communities have been observing the day for more than 30 years, the first official federal celebration just occurred in 2021, when President Joe Biden issued a proclamation recognizing the day. It was long overdue.
At Abode, we know that homelessness is inextricably linked to structural racism. While we advocate for housing for all people, we must remember our roots and that before we lived in our communities this land belonged to Indigenous people. Through a complex history of colonization, displacements, and broken promises, Indigenous inhabitants had their land stolen and wealth stripped from them – in both a financial and cultural sense.
The long-term impacts are clear. Indigenous participants we serve have likely experienced the compounding effects of racism and trauma, and serving them effectively requires acknowledging those experiences. Native Americans – along with Pacific Islanders, Native Hawaiians, and Alaska Native peoples – combine to make up 9 percent of our participants, while only comprising 1.5 percent of the general population.
Today we challenge you to learn a little bit more about the history of where you live. When we build housing in new communities, everyone wants to keep the community as it was the day after they moved in, not the day before. One of Abode’s core values is to “solve for today and tomorrow.” But we believe that for us to meet that goal, we must honor what came before.
Please join us in commemorating Indigenous Peoples’ Day by being respectful and curious about our history. We invite you to use the website below to enter your address and find out who lived in our communities before us.