Every October, while America celebrates Columbus Day and recognizes the explorer’s accomplishments, some people celebrate International Indigenous Peoples Day, a reaction to and refutation of Columbus Day.

Approximately 30 people gathered at the Park Street MBTA station Friday afternoon to speak out against varied causes. Grievances included the celebration of Columbus Day, the actions of the U.S. government in the Middle East and globalization. According to event organizers, one goal of the celebration was to create unity among different cultures in protest against the American government’s policy regarding Iraq.

The crowd was a mixture of students and people of Native American descent. Many people passed the event and only stayed for a few moments.

Eliah Tail, a speaker representing the Lakota tribe, said Columbus Day is not a day for celebration, but rather a day for sadness. According to Tail, Columbus left a legacy of destruction and exploitation of the Native American people.

“Many natives today live lives of unrelenting tragedy, plagued by alcoholism and drug abuse,” he said.

Columbus Day marks the beginning of the end for the Native American way of life, Tail said, leaving his people to suffer for hundreds of years.

“The country has become a concrete jungle. You can’t see the land today. [Native Americans] were the caretakers of the land,” said event emcee Chip Macetta.

Others spoke about the injustice in the case of Leonard Peltier, a member of the American Indian movement during the 1970s. Peltier was convicted of killing two FBI agents during a raid.

Laurie Taymore Berry, leader the Cambridge Democratic Party, said Peltier was wrongly accused of the murder. She said she believes he was imprisoned as the result of an FBI conspiracy to demobilize the American Indian Movement. According to Berry, there was no solid evidence in the case against Peltier and the FBI coerced witnesses in order to convict him.

She spoke in support of Peltier, describing him as “an artist, writer, painter and grandfather.”

“And he is not a murderer,” she said.

Berry also spoke out in opposition to the war in Iraq.

“I consider myself a very patriotic person, but I do not support the Bush administration or the war in Iraq,” she said. “Instead of focusing on oil overseas, we should focus on the economic inequality in America and the plight of the oppressed people. I am in support of the creation of jobs, equal opportunity within the workforce.”

Many participants in the small celebration were there to protest the actions of President Bush.

Andrea Hornbine, an event organizer, described war in Iraq as “colonization by the American government.” She related Columbus’ explorations in America during the 15th and 16th centuries to current U.S. acts in the Middle East, where she said the government focuses on the same ideals of greed and exploitation of the resources in the land.