October 15, 2025 Midweek News
Hello church!
Earlier this week, Montana officially celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day. After a decade of advocacy and work, our governor signed a Senate bill into law establishing Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an official state holiday.
For decades, activists and many Native American leaders in our country have sought to change the narrative many of us learned as children – a narrative that Christopher Columbus discovered America. Native People have been in the Americas for hundreds of years, and they deserve recognition as the original inhabitants of the land. Monday’s recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day marks progress for our state community honoring those who came before us and educating ourselves and the next generation.
You can read more about the news coverage here: https://flatheadbeacon.com/2025/10/13/for-the-first-time-montana-officially-celebrates-indigenous-peoples-day/
Coming up next week, our annual conference will help support the Sand Creek Healing Run in Colorado. The annual event is an annual ceremonial run from the Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site in Colorado to the state capitol in Denver. The run commemorates the victims of the 1864 massacre of a peaceful encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho people, and cleanses the path taken by the soldiers after the attack. That attack was led by a United Methodist minister who was also a colonel in the U.S. Army. The run includes prayers, songs, and community sharing. You can learn more using the link below:
https://www.mtnskyumc.org/newsdetail/sand-creek-19145133
or listen to this episode from Colorado Public Radio in 2022 at the bottom of this page: https://www.resourceumc.org/en/content/scm-healing-run-listen-while-you-walk
Blessings,
Pastor Jared