“I do not think the measure of a civilization is how tall its buildings of concrete are, but rather how well its people have learned to relate to their environment and fellow man.”
– Sun Bear, Chippewa

The Fred T. Korematsu Institute is in the beautiful Presidio in San Francisco, which for 10,000 years was home to the Ohlone or Costanoan people. We acknowledge the American Indian and indigenous peoples who have been a part of or are connected to this land.

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day set aside to honor American Indians, the first inhabitants of what became the United States of America. There were over 500 independent, sovereign nations with their own language, culture, and governments when Europeans first arrived on these shores. Theft, disease, and war decimated the American Indian and Alaska Native communities, and many tribal nations were consigned to reservations on isolated and often desolate plots of land. But in recent years, the move towards preserving the American Indian language, history, culture, and traditions has grown. 

I founded the Fred T. Korematsu Institute in 2009 to honor my father’s legacy.  Today, the Korematsu Institute is a national organization that inspires students and the public through Fred Korematsu’s story. In all of our work, we bridge various issues in history, including other civil rights heroes and movements, World War II, the Constitution, our global environmental, human rights, Asian American, and American Indian history. When we know our history, we can make powerful connections to fight present-day racism, civil rights discrimination, and political scapegoating, such as mass incarceration, anti-immigrant sentiment, genocide, and xenophobia. We work to thread our shared stories and experiences, both the good and the bad, to the present with the hope we can learn from them. And we know if we can learn from them, we can refuse to repeat those harrowing mistakes of our past. Today we honor the American Indian and indigenous people of our community and country with a commitment to educate and work in addressing inequality so that we can achieve justice for all.