From Alcatraz Island to a park in New York City, Native American people will celebrate their centurieslong history of resilience with ceremonies, dances and speeches. The events across the U.S. come two years after President Joe Biden officially commemorated Indigenous Peoples Day. An increasing number of states and cities have also recognized the day, pivoting from a day that celebrated explorer Christopher Columbus to one focused on the people whose culture was forever changed by colonialism. Kyle Mays, an associate professor of American Indian Studies at the University of California, says Indigenous Peoples Day is about reclaiming history.

Fencing and construction workers greet visitors to the Lincoln Memorial, signaling the monument to the nation's 16th president is a work in progress. And so is the nation Abraham Lincoln saved and the dream Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned nearly 60 years ago as he spoke from the steps of the memorial. That's what visitors tell The Associated Press as the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom approaches. Tourists and residents visiting the Lincoln and MLK memorials and the African American Museum of History and Culture reflect on the historic speech and agree that while there have been steps backward, some progress has been made.