Indigenous Peoples’ Day replaces Columbus Day
October 9, 2018
Indigenous Peoples’ Day is meant to celebrate and recognize Native Americans and their history and culture. The idea of renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day was first brought up during the 1977 United Nations conference in Geneva, Switzerland. 14 years later, activists in Berkeley, Calif. won the fight to rename the day and declared Oct. 12 a day of solidarity with indigenous people. It sparked a growing movement across the nation.
Why the call for change? Columbus Day was first recognized in 1937 after Italian-American community groups lobbied to create the holiday. It is often criticized for celebrating the discovery of a land that was already inhabited. Columbus Day also offends many indigenous people because Columbus himself is considered responsible for the rape, murder and enslavement of their people. The goal of the name change is to instead recognize indigenous people and help share their true history with the public.
Richard Freeman, Custodian • Oct 9, 2018 at 4:19 pm
What happened to my comment?
The Sagamore • Oct 14, 2018 at 7:38 pm
Hi Mr. Freeman,
Every comment needs to be approved by the website before it goes up. We simply had not approved it yet. Your comment was incredibly insightful, and we are grateful for it.
-The Sagamore
Richard Freeman, Custodian • Oct 9, 2018 at 4:17 pm
I am glad for the name change to Indigenous Peoples Day and the long deserved recognition and empowerment that this provides to the peoples of their very long tenure on the American continents and else where. I had not known that the Columbus Day holiday in the USA only dates to 1937 and why until this past Weekend. Still to me Columbus and his soon following decedents are very much an anti- heroes both for his navigational accomplishments and his family’s rescue of many hundreds of secret Jews and forced christian converts from the persecution of the Spanish Inquisition until Great Britain acquired Jamaica and then some time following that . Nor have been all the many Native American cultures always been stereotypical “Noble Savages”, humane to every one that they encounter and great environmentalist through out each of their respective tenures on the Americas. Some have and others have been as horrifically inhumane as Columbus was. All our cultures adapt the however best it seem fit in a specific era and there are always under appreciated minorities that recommend doing things differently; for better or worse. This, even among the the Spanish colonists. No persons or cultures should get reduced to over simplification. Nor are any human beings binary in the contributions to the world ( exclusively good or Evil, only ). Lets continue to learn as much as we can about one another and honor everyone and the rest of nature on this continent and beyond the best we are able . Sincerely, RF