Hundreds of people flocked to Oklahoma City’s Indigenous Peoples Day celebration at the First Americans Museum Monday.

The event featured everything from social dances, music and food, to a food sovereignty panel discussion and access to community resources. For many, it's a day of celebration for Native communities and remembrance of their histories.

Outside as people trekked to the top of the museum’s mound, Phillip Billy worked as the stickball game announcer on the field below. He started playing the game in the 1970s and now, his children play. For him, Indigenous Peoples’ Day is an open celebration of identities and traditions – like stickball.

“Indigenous (Peoples) Day is very important because it came on the back of a lot of people who sacrificed and suffered for generations, if not centuries, to make it happen what’s happening today,” Billy said. “So, it’s very important for me to continue those traditions and move forward.”

Oklahoma is one of the 17 states with a holiday honoring Indigenous peoples on the second Monday in October. Oklahoma City started its annual observance in 2018, three years before President Joe Biden officially recognized the holiday in 2021.

Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt, who is Osage, read a proclamation of the holiday acknowledging the 39 tribal nations and Indigenous communities in Oklahoma. He touted the event’s growth.

“This is really overwhelming, everything that’s going on here today,” Holt said. “The fact that people have to get a shuttle from a satellite parking lot is just really incredible.”