AKRON, Ohio – Summit County Council has designated the first Monday in October as “North American First Peoples Day” to celebrate Native American heritage throughout the county.

A similar resolution was adopted by Akron City Council in January 2018 to honor the indigenous people of America one week before Columbus Day. The initiative was brought by students at The Lippman School of Akron, which has a longstanding relationship with the Northern Cheyenne Nation of Montana.

“From what we understand, Akron is the first city in the United States to designate a unique day to recognize native people rather than renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day,” said Lippman Head of School Sam Chestnut. “This is an exciting time for our students, staff and the Northern Cheyenne Nation, and I am proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish together.”

Two Lippman School students made presentations Monday to council about their experiences learning about Native American history, life and culture. LaDonna Blue Eye of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and Burt Medicine Bull, a Northern Cheyenne language instructor at Chief Dull Knife College, asked council to support the resolution. Medicine Bull honored councilmembers with a traditional song.

Organizers have planned a week of events to commemorate Summit County’s first North American Peoples Day, which falls on Oct. 7, 2019.

The Portage Path – Akron’s oldest landmark and a tribute to the Native people of the area – will be celebrated beginning Oct. 4 with the opening of a new Native American art and artifact exhibit at the Cummings Center, Institute for Human Science and Culture at the University of Akron.

The fourth-annual walk of a one-kilometer leg of the Portage Path is scheduled to begin at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 6 at Portage Path CLC at 55 S. Portage Path. Members of the Northern Cheyenne Nation, drumming and in regalia, will lead the procession. The walk will end at the Perkins Stone Mansion at 550 Copley Road, followed by a short program at 2 p.m.

A dinner featuring Native American food is set for Oct. 6 at the outdoor pavilion of the Schultz Campus for Jewish Life on White Pond Drive.

The Portage Path Collective, which is comprised of the Summit County Historical Society, The Lippman School, Summit Metro Parks and the University of Akron’s Institute for Human Science and Culture and Cummings Center for the History of Psychology, will sponsor in-school activities on Oct. 7 including appearances from Indian nation representatives.

In 2016, students from Lippman, Portage Path CLC and the Cheyenne Nation worked to create a mobile app that provides information about the Portage Path’s history and environment. The app can be accessed at www.walkportagepath.org.

A new publication about the history of the eight-mile trail is free and available at the Summit County Historical Society and Metro Parks’ Seiberling Naturerealm.

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