Should your Shopify store post on Indigenous Peoples Day? Yes, if you can do it honestly. Feature Indigenous people and businesses you actually work with, take your language from Indigenous-led sources instead of writing history yourself, and keep the day off your sale calendar. If none of that fits your store, a quiet feed is a fine answer. Indigenous-owned stores set their own terms, and the logistics below still apply.
The hard part is the week before. Fall promos are already queued, the date lands on a Monday, and nobody wants to post the wrong thing. Posting nothing can feel wrong too.
Start with one page before you draft anything. Native Governance Center, a Native-led nonprofit, publishes a guide on how to talk about Native nations. It covers which names to use, what to capitalize, and when to ask instead of guessing. The plan below leans on it, and on the federal rules for marketing Native-made goods.
The plan is Stock · Story · Serve: check what you sell, write captions that credit real people, then schedule and staff the day. It fits in one week.
Key Takeaways
- Pick your position first: Indigenous-owned, carrying Native artists’ work, or no product connection. Each one posts differently.
- Audit product copy and Monday’s queue: Rename anything that uses a nation’s name without being made by a member of that nation, and move promos scheduled for October 12.
- Credit people the way they name themselves: Ask before you feature anyone, use the credit they give you, and pay anyone you ask to review your copy.
- Schedule by Friday, then staff the comments: Turn on comment filters, keep Canadian Thanksgiving on its own posts, and book your next feature date.
Why this matters now
Indigenous Peoples Day 2026 is Monday, October 12, the second Monday in October. Three things meet on that Monday, and the planning window before it is short.
The day has two names. The federal holiday calendar lists October 12 as Columbus Day, the name used in federal law (OPM). Minnesota’s statutes list Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday in October (Minnesota Statutes). Your customers will see both names. What you post shows which day you chose to mark.
Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the same Monday. If you sell in Canada, keep that host-gift weekend on its own posts with the Canadian Thanksgiving social plan. Never fold the two days into one long-weekend sale.
The mail stops. USPS lists October 12 as a 2026 postal holiday (USPS). Its operations memo for the day says there will be no regular delivery service, apart from holiday Priority Mail Express and same-day package delivery (USPS). Expect long-weekend “where is my order?” messages.
The window is short. A week is enough to ask artists before you feature them and to get your wording checked. Monday morning is not.
The Stock · Story · Serve framework
Stock · Story · Serve is a one-week routine for marking a cultural observance without selling it. Stock decides whether you have something honest to post. Story decides whose words and whose facts you use. Serve decides when the posts run, where, and who reads the replies.
Stock: what do you sell, and who are you?
Goal: know your position before you write a word.
Every store lands in one of three places.
- Indigenous-owned. You set the terms. Lead with your own people, your artists, and your work, in your own words. Whether you sell that day is your call.
- You carry work by Native artists or brands. Feature the people, not your shop. Ask each artist before you post, and use the credit they ask for.
- No product connection. Don’t invent one. Point people to Indigenous-led sources, or to Indigenous-owned businesses you actually buy from, tagged with their permission. Or post nothing that day.
Then audit your catalog, whatever your position. Search product titles, descriptions, tags, and image alt text for the name of any Native nation and for words like Native, Indian, and tribal.
The reason is the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which the Department of the Interior’s Indian Arts and Crafts Board describes as a truth-in-advertising law. It makes it illegal to offer, display, or sell any art or craft product in a way that falsely suggests it is Indian produced or the product of a particular tribe. A business that violates it can face civil penalties or be prosecuted and fined up to $1,000,000 (Indian Arts and Crafts Board). The Board’s example: products advertised as “Navajo Jewelry” violate the Act if no member, or certified Indian artisan, of the Navajo tribe made them.
The law’s words are Indian and tribe. In your own captions, follow the naming rules in Story below.
Federal rules let non-Native sellers offer products in the style of Native art only when nothing falsely suggests a Native person made them (eCFR). So rename anything that uses a nation’s name without being made by a member of that nation. Even when a “style” product is labeled correctly, leave it out of this week’s posts.
If you sell authentic work by Native artists, label it the way the Board recommends. Its regulations suggest a label, hangtag, provenance card, or similar identification with the artist’s name, the tribe the artist is enrolled in, and their enrollment number (eCFR). Ask each artist how they want those details shown online. Then put the credit in the Shopify product description, so the page says who made the piece before any post does.
Story: whose words, and whose facts?
Goal: captions that credit real people and invent nothing.
- Use the names people use for themselves. Describe an individual Native person by their specific nation affiliation, the way they prefer it, and ask if you’re not sure. For a nation, use the name it uses on its own website. For a group from several nations, use Native American, Native, or Indigenous (Native Governance Center).
- Capitalize Indigenous and Native. The same guide lists both, plus the names of Native nations, as terms to always capitalize.
- Write in the present tense. The center’s land acknowledgment guide says it plainly: Indigenous people are still here, and they’re thriving. Don’t treat them as a relic of the past (Native Governance Center).
- Link instead of lecturing. Many Native nations publish history, language, and culture resources on their own websites. Link to those and to Indigenous-led organizations rather than writing a history paragraph yourself. If you can’t source a fact, cut it.
- Pair any land acknowledgment with action. The same guide calls land acknowledgment a starting point, not enough on its own. Its examples of action include donating time or money to Indigenous organizations.
- Pay for review. If you ask a Native employee, creator, or customer to check your copy, offer to pay them. The center notes that Indigenous people are too often asked to do that emotional labor for free.
Serve: when does it run, and who is watching?
Goal: posts that go out on time, on two channels, with a person reading the replies.
- Lock the schedule by Friday, October 9. Then check everything else queued for Monday, including auto-posted products and leftover back-to-school or fall collection promos. Move anything that reads like a holiday sale.
- Post the shipping note. If you ship with USPS, tell customers on Friday that Monday is a postal holiday and regular deliveries pause until Tuesday.
- Turn on comment filters before anything posts. Instagram’s Hidden Words hides comments that contain words, phrases, or emojis on your custom list (Instagram Help). Facebook Pages can hide comments containing words you choose and run a profanity filter (Meta Business Help).
- Name who reads the comments. Pick one person to check them Monday morning, midday, and evening, using the habits in how to handle social comments and DMs. Answer honest questions. Hide abuse. Don’t argue in public.
- Book the follow-up. Put the next date you’ll feature the same artists on the calendar before Monday ends.
Worked example: one week for a shop that stocks Native artists’ work
Here’s the week for a small home goods shop that stocks pieces by two Native artists year-round. The shop, the artists, and the products are examples. If you’re in a different position, swap in the caption that matches it.
What happens each day?
| Day | Phase | Job | Done when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon Oct 5 | Stock | Write down your position. Search the catalog for nation names and for Native, Indian, and tribal. | Every flagged product renamed or kept out of posts |
| Tue Oct 6 | Stock | Ask both artists whether they want to be featured and how to credit them. | A written yes and an exact credit line from each |
| Wed Oct 7 | Story | Draft captions from the options below. Collect the links you’ll cite. | A source for every fact in the drafts |
| Thu Oct 8 | Story | Send each artist their own post. Check names, nations, and capitalization. | Each artist approves their post |
| Fri Oct 9 | Serve | Schedule Monday’s posts. Turn on comment filters. Post the USPS note. Move queued promos. | Posts scheduled, filters on, comment owner named |
| Sat Oct 10 to Sun Oct 11 | Serve | Nothing new. Canadian Thanksgiving posts run on their own plan. | No observance post mixed into a weekend promo |
| Mon Oct 12 | Serve | Posts go live. Reply to comments. Share the artists’ own posts to Stories. | Comments checked morning, midday, and evening |
| Tue Oct 13 | Serve | Thank the artists. Pay any reviewer. Pick the next feature date. | Next feature on the calendar |
What goes in the asset list?
Caption options. Pick the one that matches your position, fill the brackets with real details, and send any artist’s lines to that artist first.
- Indigenous-owned: “[Brand] is owned by [your name and nation, written your way]. Today we’re sharing [the people who make our work, a story from our community, or a cause we support]. [Shop link, only if you want one.]”
- Stocks Native artists’ work: “This week we’re featuring [artist name] ([nation, as the artist writes it]), who makes [product] for our shop. [One line from the artist, approved by them.] See more of their work: [link].”
- No product connection: “Today is Indigenous Peoples Day. We’re sharing [organization]‘s guide to [topic], plus a few Indigenous-owned shops we buy from: [tags, with permission].”
Links to have ready. The Native Governance Center guides above, the website of any nation you name, and each artist’s own shop or profile.
Images. The artists’ work as it sits in your shop, or photos the artists send you.
What to skip.
- “Columbus Day sale” or “long weekend deal” graphics
- Costumes, headdress graphics, clip-art feathers, or “tribal” patterns
- “Native-inspired” products, even when they are labeled correctly
- A land acknowledgment with no action attached
- Trending hashtags added for reach
Platform plan: Instagram and Facebook
Two platforms are plenty for this day.
Instagram: share the credit
Make each artist feature a collab post. Instagram lets you invite another account as a collaborator. If they accept, the post also shows on their profile and in their followers’ feeds, and the header credits both accounts (Instagram Help).
Instagram also says the original author owns the post, so deleting it removes it from the collaborator’s profile too. Tell the artist up front that the post stays up.
Use Stories for amplification. Reshare the artists’ own posts and posts from Indigenous-led organizations, with a link sticker to the source.
Facebook: link out and moderate
Post the same feature on your Facebook Page with a direct link to the artist’s shop or the collection page that credits them. If your store has no product connection, a link post works well here: share a Native Governance Center guide or a nation’s own page with two sentences of your own above it.
Before Monday, open your Page’s Settings, then Followers and public content, then Public posts. Add your keyword list under Hide comments containing certain words, and turn on the profanity filter (Meta Business Help). Skip paid boosts for this post. Ad money behind an observance post looks like cashing in.
Common mistakes on Indigenous Peoples Day
Making it a Columbus Day sale. A discount with the federal name on it turns the day into a promo slot. Keep any long-weekend offer free of the holiday’s name and out of your observance post.
Stereotype imagery. Costumes, headdress graphics, and clip-art feathers turn people into props. Use real work by real artists, with permission.
Inventing history. No source, no sentence. Link to the nation’s own site or an Indigenous-led organization instead.
Calling products Native-made when they aren’t. Under the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, that can be illegal, not just a bad look (Indian Arts and Crafts Board).
The Monday-morning scramble. A graphic made at 8 a.m. skips every check in this plan. Schedule by Friday.
Ignoring Indigenous-owned brands. A post about Indigenous people that features no Indigenous artist, maker, or business misses the point. So does featuring them without asking.
Speaking for everyone. Native Governance Center points out that terminology is highly personal and that Native people don’t all prefer the same terms. Name specific people and nations instead of describing one “Native culture.”
Disappearing on October 13. Customers notice a once-a-year feature. Shopify’s retail calendar lists Native American Heritage Month in November and suggests highlighting Indigenous creators or donating a portion of sales to Native-led nonprofits (Shopify). If you stock Native artists’ work, give it a place in your holiday gift guide, and confirm quantities with the artists before your BFCM plan promises anything.
Put Stock · Story · Serve to work this week
- Stock: Write down your position today. Run the catalog search and fix what it finds.
- Story: Ask the people you want to feature by Tuesday. Draft from the caption options and send each artist their own lines.
- Serve: Schedule by Friday, turn on comment filters, post the shipping note, and name who reads the comments on Monday.
To see this week next to the rest of October, IDEQO’s free content calendar drafts a 30-day plan for your niche by day, pillar, and format, and IDEQO’s free holiday calendar suggests dated observances and post angles by month. Treat any suggested angle as a draft and run it through the Story rules above before it reaches a caption. Start free with IDEQO. Free plan available. No credit card required.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Indigenous Peoples Day 2026?
Monday, October 12, 2026, the second Monday in October. The federal holiday calendar lists that Monday as Columbus Day, the name in federal law, while Minnesota's statutes, for example, list Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday in October. USPS treats the date as a postal holiday, and Canadian Thanksgiving falls on the same Monday.
Should my Shopify store post on Indigenous Peoples Day?
Post when you can do it honestly: your store is Indigenous-owned, you carry work by Native artists or brands who agree to be featured, or you can point people to Indigenous-led sources without selling anything. If your only idea is a discount or a stock graphic, skip it. A quiet feed is a fine answer.
Can I run a sale on Indigenous Peoples Day?
If your store is Indigenous-owned, that is your call. For other stores, a discount tied to the day reads as selling the observance. If a long-weekend promotion is already scheduled, take the holiday's name off it, keep it out of your Indigenous Peoples Day post, and check that nothing in it uses costume or stereotype imagery.
Can I sell Native-inspired products?
Be careful. The Indian Arts and Crafts Act is a truth-in-advertising law. It is illegal to market an art or craft product in a way that falsely suggests it is Indian produced or made by a particular tribe, to use the law's terms. Non-Native sellers may offer products in that style only when nothing suggests Native production. Keep them out of this day's posts.
How do I credit Native artists in social posts?
Ask first, then use the credit the artist asks for: their name and their specific nation, written the way they write it. Native Governance Center recommends describing individual Native people by their preferred nation affiliation. On Instagram, invite the artist to a collab post so both accounts appear in the header, and pay anyone you ask to review your copy.
