diff --git a/registrar/apps/core/migrations/0015_alter_user_first_name.py b/registrar/apps/core/migrations/0015_alter_user_first_name.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fccb7b83b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/registrar/apps/core/migrations/0015_alter_user_first_name.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# Generated by Django 3.2.21 on 2023-09-27 13:40
+
+from django.db import migrations, models
+
+
+class Migration(migrations.Migration):
+
+    dependencies = [
+        ('core', '0014_usergroup'),
+    ]
+
+    operations = [
+        migrations.AlterField(
+            model_name='user',
+            name='first_name',
+            field=models.CharField(blank=True, max_length=150, verbose_name='first name'),
+        ),
+    ]
diff --git a/registrar/settings/base.py b/registrar/settings/base.py
index 571092e36..744a9d0ec 100644
--- a/registrar/settings/base.py
+++ b/registrar/settings/base.py
@@ -337,3 +337,6 @@
 # How long (in seconds) we keep program details from Discovery in the cache.
 # Defaults to 24 hours.
 PROGRAM_CACHE_TIMEOUT = 60 * 60 * 24
+
+# disable indexing on history_date
+SIMPLE_HISTORY_DATE_INDEX = False