Hoan Bridge Lights up to Commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day

In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Potawatomi tribe members and officials gathered Monday night to watch Milwaukee’s Hoan Bridge light with the traditional colors of the medicine wheel; red, yellow, white and black. 

This is the third year that the Hoan Bridge has been lit up for Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Alongside this event, Potawatomi also hosted its third annual Indigenous Business Convention.

The event was organized by the Indigenous Business Group, and its three founders Rob Pero, Zoar Fulwilder, and Collin Price each spoke about local indigenous entrepreneurs.

Attendees gathered at 6 p.m. at 600 S. Water St. to watch Fire Nation, a Potawatomi drum group, begin the ceremony with a traditional Potawatomi chant. Then, Potawatomi council member Brooks Boyd began his speech with a land acknowledgment.

Boyd gave a shout out to the Indian Community School saying, “…they are the ones that brought the children right to the hill in Madison which really initiated this movement for the state to officially acknowledge Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”

Then Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr. talked about his mother who educated indigenous youth when schools would not accept them.

He also talked about his father, “My dad always said that you have to establish business, so you can build a better tomorrow.”

Ernie Stevens Sr. passed away on June first this year.

“He never got rich,” said Stevens Jr. “But he made tribes rich, he made people rich, and he made communities rich.”

After the speakers were done, they took a group photo in front of the Hoan Bridge with the colors of the medicine wheel reflected in the water below. Attendees were treated to one more song under the light of the Hoan Bridge.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a relatively new celebration, first recognized in South Dakota in 1989. Wisconsin’s first official recognition of the day was in 2019, and the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day happened in 2021.