While more than 15 states across the nation have formally recognized Indigenous Peoples Day, the state of Washington has yet to join the list.

President Joe Biden proclaimed Indigenous Peoples Day in October last year, the first time a U.S. president has done so, even though the government hasn’t officially marked it a federal holiday.

But that hasn’t stopped school districts around Grays Harbor and across the state from recognizing the day anyway.

In February, the North Beach School District Board of Directors, which serves four schools in Ocean Shores and Pacific Beach, officially proclaimed Monday, Oct. 10, 2022, as Indigenous Peoples Day for schools in the district — giving students the day off in observance — and cemented the day as the second Monday of October for all future calendars.

The board adopted the day before the arrival of current Superintendent Angela Lyte Crowther, who was appointed by the board of directors on March 15. Crowther said former Superintendent Andrew Kelly worked with the Quinault Nation to draft the proclamation.

“We made the change in support of the Native American students in our community,” Crowther said. “We have a large number of students from the Quinault Indian Nation.”

According to the proclamation, 176 American Indian and Indigenous students are enrolled in the North Beach School District.

“The school board recognizes the fact that lands currently owned and operated by the North Beach School District are part of the homelands and villages of the Indigenous people of the area, the Quinault Nation,” the proclamation reads.

Crowther said Pacific Beach Elementary — located just three miles south of the Quinault Indian Reservation — gathered survey responses from students and parents about what Indigenous Peoples Day means to them. The school will post the responses to its website Monday.

The proclamation follows the lead of others around the state. In 2016, the Seattle Public Schools Board of Directors proclaimed Indigenous Peoples Day as the second Monday of October, marking a shift in some institutions away from Columbus Day, which remains a federal holiday.

Other districts on Puget Sound, including Edmonds and Bellingham, also declared the day this year.

Although Hoquiam School District hasn’t issued a formal recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day, it still participated in related activities as the day approached.

Sandy Ruiz is the native education coordinator for the Hoquiam School District. She meets with students weekly to provide education focused on Indigenous issues and culture with classes and activities. She said students watched an informational video Wednesday about Indigenous history in advance of the Oct. 10 holiday.

She put up flyers around the school to spread the word about Indigenous Peoples Day.

“It’s for them to learn more about that period of history because it’s been glossed over,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz said some students in her class might write a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee regarding formal recognition of the holiday, while others were thinking of putting together a display to recognize the day.

And nearby Aberdeen School District will conduct a visual display of its own.

Misty Barlan, native Education coordinator for the Aberdeen School District, said she designed shirts for students throughout the district to wear on Indigenous Peoples Day, Oct 10. Aberdeen High School students will deliver the shirts to students at Robert Gray Elementary. She workshopped the design over the course of 2022 and produced the shirts through silk screening. She said the design includes several elements: the Medicine Wheel, a symbol of health and healing; the Tree of Life, a symbol of rebirth; a feather, a symbol of connection between the Creator and the bird from which it came; and a bobcat, the Aberdeen High School mascot and a connection to local wildlife.

Students at Wishkah Valley School District will also attend school Monday and participate in activities to honor the day, according to Shannon Patterson, principal of the district’s lone K-12 school.

She said middle school students prepared a Washington state Native American culture presentation, while elementary students will watch “specially curated cultural videos” to learn about Indigenous people, “both past and present,” Patterson wrote in an email.

She said high school students will “fit Indigenous Peoples Day discussions into their study of colonial history, examining the relationships between Native American people and colonists from both France and Britain.”

This story has been updated.