On the second floor of the Wisconsin Historical Museum, a giant photograph of a drawing hangs on the wall. A tall, blue crane leads three yellow martens, a brown bear, an orange man and a green fish along the shore of Lake Superior.

This drawing served as a petition in 1849 to then President Zachary Taylor to allow the clans represented by the animals, or totems, to stay in the area. President Andrew Jackson had signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830 and with Wisconsin becoming a state in 1848, there was pressure to move Native Americans out of the land for white settlement.

The petition did not work and a removal was signed in 1850. The Ojibwe were removed to Sandy Lake, Minnesota with promises of food and supplies. The supplies arrived late, however and hundreds of the Ojibwe died during the brutal winter as a result.

It’s as Wisconsin’s motto says, “Forward.”

Native Americans have been in Wisconsin for 12,000 years. They’ve filled these lands and this city with effigy mounds that still grace our landscape to this day, despite most of them being destroyed by farmers and housing developers.

I know 1849 was a long time ago, but we have the homes we have today, because of the removal of Indigenous people from this land.

The Native American population today remains small and plagued with major economic and health issues. They also have the highest risk of suicide of any minority group.

On Oct. 16, the Dane County Board passed a resolution making the second Monday of every October from here on out Indigenous People’s Day in Dane County.

“WHEREAS, Indigenous Peoples Day commemorates five hundred years of survival and renewal of native cultures in the face of political and cultural repression,” says the resolution.

That’s 500 years of repression. Frankly, that’s 500 years of cultural and human genocide.

Those aren’t pretty words. Being the progressive city we like to think we are, we should call it what it is. We should find ways to move forward and help a group of people we’ve left behind.

Indigenous People’s Day is a nice start, but it’s not enough. The resolution, “urges all Dane County community members to observe the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day,” but I urge our leaders to do more. I urge our city to more, I urge myself to do more.

In the photograph on the wall of the museum, lines flow from the crane’s head and heart to each of the other’s heads and hearts to symbolize that the clan chiefs presenting the treaty were of the same mind and heart. This serves as a powerful message that we too, should be of the same mind and heart of the indigenous people who were the first to make Wisconsin wonderful and continue to do so.