If you had to pick one city in America to have an “Indigenous Peoples Day,” Oklahoma City seems like it would be a solid choice.
Not only does “Oklahoma” mean “Red People” in Choctaw, but thanks to the brutal forced removal of American Indian tribes to what is now Oklahoma in the 1800s, our state and city has a close association with Native American tribes, their people, their culture, and perhaps most importantly, their casinos. In fact, Oklahoma has the second-largest Native American population in the country, comprising about 8% of our state’s population.