The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners on Wednesday, Oct. 1, celebrated its monthly Proclamation Day by approving five proclamations.
“Proclamations serve to honor, celebrate, and recognize groups and individuals for their services and achievements,” Chair Jessica Vega Pederson said. “It helps us raise awareness about significant issues that affect our community here in Multnomah County.
“Today we’re creating space for five different proclamations that honor the indigenous people of Multnomah County, recognize the importance of archive records documentation, raise awareness about cybersecurity, uplift the ongoing work to eliminate domestic violence and support survivors of domestic violence, and to celebrate Hispanic and Latine residents’ culture and heritage.”
Indigenous Peoples’ Day
The Board proclaimed Oct. 13, 2025, as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Multnomah County. The proclamation acknowledges the importance of reflecting on ways indigenous peoples all over the world have improved our lives. Last year, Multnomah County added an additional floating holiday so Native employees could travel home for celebrations and all County employees could recognize and celebrate the importance of Indigenous contributions to the community.
“Together with our Native employees, we look forward to celebrating Oct. 13th as Indigenous People's Day in Multnomah County,” Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards said. “I also want to acknowledge that yesterday, Sept 30th, was the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, where Indigenous Peoples memorialize the atrocities and multi-generational effects of the Indian boarding school system."
Commissioner Brim-Edwards, who co-sponsored the proclamation with the County’s Office of Government Relations, welcomed and thanked JR Lilly, the County’s tribal relations liaison, and members of the Mamuk Tillikums Employee Resource Group, who brought the proclamation forward.
“We want to center and honor Indigenous voices, and we definitely, here at Multnomah County, believe if we heal the land, we heal the people,” Lilly said. “And the work that we're doing with climate justice, and work we're doing with restoring families back together and educating the community, is vital to making all this work.”
Eva Red Bird, an Indigenous Community Services Coordinator for Multnomah County Library, and Department of Community Services Deputy Director Denell Broncho, read the proclamation in English.
“Multnomah County finds the Native American, Alaska Native and Indigenous Heritage of Turtle Island, or what we now call the United States, extends since time immemorial and is a vital influence in our country's prosperity. The United States rests on the ancestral territory of the Indigenous Tribal Nations of this region and their homelands and villages with the stolen labor of our African siblings. And we acknowledge the multi-generational loss of life, loss of land, loss of water and waterways, loss of language, loss of children, and loss of culture due to the historical and ongoing colonization of this land that perpetuate the current structural barriers that impact the native quality of life,” Red Bird read aloud.
“Recognizing that we are not the first caretakers of this land, and that generations of Native American people called, and continue to call, this place home is essential to where we need to begin as a County and as a community. If we are intentional about equity and inclusion, being sincere in our words and actions will consistently result in respect for Native American people coming first,” Broncho said.
Raven Harmon, a cultural specialist with the Future Generations Collaborative, later read the proclamation in Chinuk Wawa, one of the languages of the nine tribes in Oregon.
Oregon Archives Month
The Board proclaimed October 2025 as Oregon Archives Month in Multnomah County. The proclamation finds “the records of Multnomah County, the State of Oregon, the Pacific Northwest and of all human beings, wherever situated, are crucial to our understanding of the past and the work to plan our common future.”
Chair Vega Pederson shared words of gratitude to County archivists for their help on a project led by her office to collect oral histories of people who have contributed to homelessness policies at Multnomah County and the City of Portland over the last 40 years. The stories will be hosted and publicly available in the County’s digital archives, and used for an exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society in January 2026.
“It's a big undertaking. The project really couldn't have happened without you and the help of your team, so I just want to appreciate that,” Chair Vega Pederson said.
County Archivist Terry Baxter noted that this year’s recognition would be the 21st year Archives Month would be celebrated in Oregon. The occasion’s purpose “is to increase the public's awareness of archival and historical records, educate people and organizations about preserving their own records, and encourage people to explore and use the archives in their area, including Multnomah County,” he said.
“Archival institutions have a responsibility to provide the public with access to their records, and it's a goal of these institutions to increase public awareness of the vital role they play in safeguarding knowledge of our intellectual, cultural, social and governmental heritage,” Multnomah County Digital Archivist Nikki Koehlert read.
“Archival records document the activities of people, businesses, governments and organizations. They provide context to our histories, provide evidence of our common and individual rights and obligations, and inform our collective journey forward to a just and equitable future.”
The proclamation was sponsored by Department of County Assets Director and Chief Information Officer Tracey Massey.
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
The Board proclaimed October 2025 as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month in Multnomah County.
Before presenters began, Chair Vega Pederson gave a shout-out to the County’s Information Technology Division.
“The public may not know this, but we really do have a world class IT team here at Multnomah County,” she said. “They kept our data safe and insulated during the CrowdStrike attacks last year. It was potentially the largest IT outage in history, and we were very minimally impacted by this. We know data and security needs increase each year, and it's great to have this team that we can count on.”
Department of County Assets Director and CIO Massey co-sponsored the proclamation, and started the presentation by noting cybersecurity is not just an IT responsibility — rather, we all have a part in it.
“The human element is the most significant vulnerability and the biggest point of defense in modern cybersecurity,” Massey said. “This requires continuous education and proactive behavioral change, and I hope you all look out for opportunities to learn more this month and share them out with your staff and others.”
Deputy Chief Information Officer Sim Ogle then read the proclamation.
“Across the nation, there is a dramatic rise in social engineering attacks made even more sophisticated by generative AI. These types of attacks don't exploit technical flaws. They use psychology to exploit human trust.
“Our month-long cybersecurity awareness campaign will equip employees to recognize common red flags, such as suspicious links, unusual requests, and unexpected attachments.”
The County is shifting its cybersecurity to a more proactive posture, Ogle followed. “This new approach focuses on preventing incidents, rather than just responding to them, offering a clearer understanding of user behavior and enabling more effective and timely risk identification.”
Domestic Violence Awareness Month
Multnomah County proclaimed October 2025 as Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
Commissioner Meghan Moyer, who co-sponsored the proclamation, shared opening remarks stressing the importance of continuing to work on this issue.
“I am just honored to be able to bring this forward today as a reminder that our community still has a long way to go in addressing domestic violence and its ramifications to families, communities and individuals,” Commissioner Moyer said.
Domestic and Sexual Violence Coordination Office Manager Rhea DuMont prefaced the proclamation by sharing with the Board, “Every day survivors of domestic violence face danger, fear and uncertainty in our community. With housing scarce and critical federal funding and other funding under constant threat, these lifesaving services offer safety, support and hope. They are more essential right now than they have ever been before.
“So today we gather together to honor survivors and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that help is always within reach in our community.”
Domestic violence can reach anyone, but its impacts are not felt uniformly across all types of people, as people with disabilities, members of LGBTQI2S+ communities, immigrants, older adults, and women of color experience disproportionate rates of domestic violence.
“These disproportionate impacts are often a direct result of systemic barriers, inequities and inherent racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, ageism, and other oppressions in our service systems,” said Program Specialist Senior Kara Sydnor. “Recent and ongoing federal funding cuts threaten to further widen these inequities, leaving communities most impacted by violence with fewer resources and support.”
“Nationally, 1 in 3 women, 1 in 9 men, and more than half of all trans and nonbinary people will experience domestic or sexual violence at some point in their lifetimes,” DuMont said.
“One in 15 children are exposed to domestic violence every year, and between 30 and 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the home,” Sydnor added. “Exposure to domestic violence harms children and places them at risk of experiencing further violence.”
Multnomah County, DuMont said, is “a leader in addressing domestic violence through its prevention, public safety, and health and human services programs. Our cross-sector collaboration stretches across housing, criminal justice, law enforcement, community-based services, and more.”
Earlier in the presentation, DuMont requested that members of her office and their community and system partners stand to be recognized for their work, who were met with applause from the audience in the boardroom.
Youth and Family Services Division Director Lori Stegmann and DuMont co-sponsored the proclamation.
Hispanic and Latiné Heritage Month
The Board proclaimed Sept. 15 through Oct. 15, 2025, as Hispanic and Latiné Heritage Month.
This period, according to the proclamation, “marks the independence anniversaries of several Latin American nations, including Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Chile and Belize.” Each year, Multnomah County honors the occasion to celebrate the diverse contributions of Hispanic and Latiné communities.
Members of Latino communities make up 14% of Multnomah County’s population; by 2050, about 2 of every 10 county residents will be Latino.
“We are Black, Brown, Native, and Indigenous communities from many nations with over 400 languages spoken in our county. Our differences are our strengths in unity,” shared Jesus Navarro Meza, who works in the County’s Behavioral Health Resource Center.
Chair Vega Pederson, who co-sponsored the proclamation with the Employees of Color Employee Resource Group, acknowledged the challenging times facing Multnomah County and the impact of the federal government’s actions on the community.
“With everything that is going on right now with the president commandeering the National Guard within our own County, with the indefensible actions of ICE and their draconian tactics within our community,” Chair Vega Pederson said, “with many community members living in fear for their safety and their families’ safety, to the point where we've heard from some community members who decided not to be here today and join us because they are fearful of what might happen — with all of that in mind, I am so proud of our collective efforts to organize this proclamation and the ceremony that is happening immediately after this, in this room.”
Navarro Meza read the proclamation, sharing words of strength.
”This year’s theme, ‘La Cultura Cura: Culture Heals,’ invites us to dig deep into our cultural roots to honor ancestral wisdom and recognize that the pathway to health, restoration and lifelong well-being exists within our cultural values, traditions and Indigenous practices,” Navarro said. “Culture grounds us in dignidad, guides us with respeto, connects us in confianza, and sustains us with cariño, fe and esperanza.
“La Cultura Cura reminds us that our cultura — our language, food, música, historias and abuelita’s consejos — is not only our identity, but also medicine. Culture heals. Culture strengthens.”
Following the proclamation ceremony, attendees were invited to join a celebration event that included food and musical performances.
