The second Monday in October is Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a contemporary interpretation of the Columbus Day federal holiday originally enacted in 1932. How we approach this day varies: some choose to honor or celebrate, while others mourn. No matter how you experience Indigenous Peoples’ Day, it is personal, and it is essential we commit to shifting our lexicon from “Columbus Day” to “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”
Indigenous Peoples’ Day was proposed by Indigenous people in 1977 to the United Nations as an offset to anti-Indigenous discrimination and to debunk the myth Columbus discovered America. Many of us remember the rhyme, “In 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue.” This rhyme, and this version of American history I learned in school, sticks with me. I am certain that somewhere exists a photograph of me and my classmates dressed as either Indian Braves or Pilgrims, each costume fashioned from either a brown paper bag or white butcher paper. I feel a twinge of embarrassment to admit my excitement about having been dressed in a paper bag, but it seemed far better than being invisible. These retellings of history, a discovered continent, of gracious Thanksgiving hosts and their invited guests, are not only inaccurate, but are also harmful and dangerous rewritings of history.
Erasing and distorting Truth and lived experience are long-standing tactics of war, slavery, and colonization. This threat is not confined to the past but persists as a contemporary tool of oppression being exacted in American schools, libraries, and community centers. For example, Florida’s new 2023 standards for social studies education include teaching, “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.” I agree wholeheartedly with Congresswoman Shantell M. Brown’s Newsweek op-ed: “what’s happening in Florida is part of an ongoing, and far from new, effort across the country to erase, distort, and deceive people about Black history and American history overall.”1
The erasure and distortion of Indigenous history in the Americas began with the retelling of colonization with Columbus’s alleged discovery. The Doctrine of Discovery provided a framework and justification for Christian explorers to lay claim to territories uninhabited by Christians. Because Indigenous peoples were not Christians, the lands they inhabited were vacant and ripe for discovery and sovereignty claims by foreign entities. In 1493, the year after Columbus sailed the ocean blue, it is estimated that one-fifth of the earth’s population was living here, meaning Columbus “discovered” a land inhabited by more than 100 million Indigenous peoples. The Doctrine of Discovery legitimized their colonization and continues to impact their descendants negatively. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues highlighted the ongoing impact of the Discovery Doctrine on Indigenous peoples and denounced the Doctrine calling it the root of all discrimination and marginalization of Indigenous communities worldwide.
We must confront the historical inaccuracy of Columbus’ discovery of America, and the inherent harm of the Doctrine of Discovery as a tool of colonialism whose principles of conquest and subjugation made way for the devastating impacts that followed, including the genocidal practices inherent in civilizing the Indian, and the narrative that Indigenous peoples are savages, lazy and inferior. Acknowledging Indigenous Peoples’ Day begins to move us into a shared history where Indigenous peoples existed and exist—where Indigenous people are present, visible and valuable members of a complex society. Indeed, present and visible leaders in seeking redress and reconciliation of the impacts of colonization and as allies to the redress and reconciliation of the impacts of slavery.
In 2021, 44 years after the suggestion by Indigenous Peoples to the UN, President Biden proclaimed October 11, 2021 to be Indigenous Peoples Day, federally recognizing the contributions and resilience of Indigenous peoples and their inherent sovereignty and called upon the people of the United States to “observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities.” However, the federal holiday remains Columbus Day; as the President Proclaimed just one year later, “In commemoration of Christopher Columbus’s historic voyage 530 years ago, the Congress, by joint resolution of April 30, 1934, and modified in 1968 . . . has requested the President proclaim the second Monday of October of each year as Columbus Day.”
While Columbus Day is not recognized by Washington State, neither is Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Local Indigenous peoples long ago began working in Seattle to have Columbus Day proclaimed Indigenous Peoples’ Day replacing not the pride of Italians in celebrating their history, but a day to celebrate social justice for Indigenous Americans and allies. In 2014, the City of Seattle did so, and this year, October 9th will mark Indigenous Peoples Day. To date, the second Monday in October will mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day in more than 100 cities and a dozen states.
How will you choose to spend our October Monday holiday? Will you acknowledge Indigenous Peoples and their contributions and inherent sovereignty? Will you celebrate Columbus’s voyage? Can you see a way to acknowledge both? I will celebrate and reflect; I will own my identity and honor my ancestors and the impacts of colonization. Within this dichotomy I will bask in the light shining on Indigenous peoples because October 9, as is every day, a good day to be Indigenous.
1 “Florida Can’t Decide if It Wants to Erase Black History, or Just Lie About It.” August 23, 2023.
