We Celebrated Indigenous People's Day

Story, videos and photos by Samya Carroll, Avonni Campbell, Dion’ne Wallace, Morgan Maddox, Meagan Maddox, Arianna Shaw, Cordé Shaw and Derrold Washington, and Samaya Carroll. Edited by Dion’ne Wallace and Avonni Campbell.

DEC. 2, 2019: On October 18, 2019, our FNN team visited The Mexican Institute of Washington and Pica Tacos Restaurant for Indigenous People's Day. 

What are indigenous people? We will tell you what we learned on our trip. We talked about if the Columbus Day holiday should be renamed Indigenous People's Day. The indigenous people were the original owners of the land we call America. They were very smart and talented. So we should honor them, not the people who killed them. We don’t want to celebrate something bad that happened to the indigenous people who roamed their land. 

We got to explore a very old and beautiful mansion, and we will show you inside. The walls have murals that are pictures of the past, and that tell about Mexican history. We liked the wall murals, the music room and the sun room. 

We learned that Mexican people aren’t different from American people. We also learned that people can express themselves in many different ways. Like the Mexican symbol of the eagle with a snake in its mouth flying over a cactus plant, that symbol is on the Mexican flag. We learned that pictures can express important things too. 

The tour guide told us that Mexican food is a UNESCO treasure, maybe because the traditional foods and way of cooking has been kept alive for over 100 years. UNESCO is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. We got to taste real Mexican food at Pica Tacos, and it was delicious. 

We had a great day learning about Mexico and the Mexican culture.  We read in their brochure that “The Mexican Cultural Institute is committed to enriching the relationship between Mexico and the United States by sharing 

Mexico ́s vibrant cultural past and present with the local community; that the murals were done by a famous artist Robert Cueva del Rio and that the mansion “is designated a Historical Landmark in the D.C. inventory of Historic Sites.” Do you like learning about cultures? 

Corde Shaw is a 6th scholar, Avonni Campbell, Megan Maddox, Morgan Maddox, Arianna Shaw are 5th grade scholars, Dion’ne Wallace is a 4th grade scholar, Samya Carroll and Derrold Washington are 3rd grade scholars at Friendship Southeast Academy.