This is an archive of prayers composed for or relevant to Indigenous People’s Day, a civic holiday in the United States that celebrates and honors Native American peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures. It is celebrated across the United States on the second Monday in October, and is an official city and state holiday in various localities.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day began as a counter-celebration to the U.S. federal holiday of Columbus Day honoring the 15th century Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. Many rejected the premise of Columbus Day arguing that it represents “the violent history of the colonization in the Western Hemisphere” and that it sanitizes Christopher Columbus’ own actions such as enslaving the Taíno People of the Caribbean. Indigenous Peoples’ Day was instituted in Berkeley, California, in 1992, to coincide with the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus in the Americas on October 12, 1492. Two years later, Santa Cruz, California, instituted the holiday. Starting in 2014, many other cities and states adopted the holiday.

Click here to contribute a prayer or reading you have prepared for Indigenous Peoples’ Day.