With six signatures, the North Beach Board of Directors and Superintendent Andrew Kelly approved a proclamation declaring October 10, 2022, Indigenous People’s Day in North Beach School District.

In doing so, “They reaffirmed their commitment to promote the well-being and growth of every district student, especially the 176 students who make up the community's American Indian and Indigenous students, and who are the future of their people.”

They also agreed to make it a non-school day in line with other federal holidays.  

Quinault Indian Nation President Guy Capoeman joined the board for the signing. He posed the question, why is it important to create such proclamations? “To acknowledge each other. To acknowledge each other’s history. And to move on,” he said before providing a Native song of prayer.

"It's vitally important that everyone in a leadership role seeks to acknowledge the truth of the past,” Superintendent Andrew Kelly said. “I’m honored to serve in a school district with a significant Indigenous population and am proud of our North Beach Board of Directors for making such a public stand and proclamation acknowledging the value of the diversity within our district community."

For non-Indigenous communities, land acknowledgement is a powerful way to show respect and honor the Indigenous Peoples of the land on which we work and live. Acknowledgement is a simple way of resisting the erasure of Indigenous histories and working towards honoring and inviting the truth. By acknowledging this shared history, we move forward in the healing process.

The proclamation is available on the North Beach School District website.  As we get closer to the date next fall, school activities honoring Indigenous peoples will be shared.

North Beach joins other school districts in the Pacific Northwest, including Seattle, Corvallis, OR, and Reynolds, OR, who have also proclaimed the second Monday in October Indigenous Peoples’ Day.