On a chilly Monday morning, Mayor Mike Johnston joined community leaders on Indigenous Peoples’ Day to declare a portion of City Park as a “living land acknowledgement.”
The South Prairie, a swath of grass near 17th Avenue and Colorado Boulevard, just south of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, will be transformed into an actual prairie with native grasses and mushrooms. Medicinal plants will be planted at Lily Pond. There will be a gathering space at the site of a former playground for Indigenous events. And Indigenous art will be included throughout the site.
It’s the first dedication of its kind in Denver — marking a remarkable change from the early 2000s, when Denver police arrested hundreds of Native American organizers who blockaded the city’s Columbus Day parades for several years…