Indigenous Peoples' Day celebrates 27th year

Posted November 2020

By Elizabeth Philbrick

Staff Editor

After 27 years, Indigenous Peoples’ Day continues to be celebrated on Oct. 12, replacing Columbus Day.

The day honors Native Indigenous Americans, an objection to the celebration of Christopher Columbus. It is also called First Peoples’ Day, National Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and Native American Day. The holiday celebrates and honors Native American peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures.

This holiday is celebrated across the United States on the second Monday of October. Fourteen states and more than 130 cities observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of, or in addition to, Columbus Day.

The first idea of an Indigenous People's Day took root in 1977 at an international conference on discrimination, sponsored by the United Nations. South Dakota was the first state to recognize that day 12 years later. The cities of Berkeley and Santa Cruz, California, followed.

Nine locations across the United States had adopted the celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2020 instead of Columbus Day. These places include Arizona; Gig Harbor, Washington; Harris County, Texas; Norristown, Pennsylvania; Salem, Massachusetts; Salisbury, Maryland; Virginia; and Columbus, Ohio.

The California State Legislature considered Bill AB55 to formally replace Columbus Day with Native American Day, but it did not pass. On Oct. 19, 2019, just a few days before Columbus Day, the Washington D.C. City Council voted to temporarily replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day.

The name change sparked protests against the historical conquests of North America by Europeans. These protests called attention to the losses suffered by Native Americans and their culture through diseases, warfare, massacres, and forced concentration with white culture.

Columbus made four expeditions to the Caribbean and South America over two decades, enslaving and decimating populations, and opening the floodgates of European colonization. Although Columbus is credited as the “discoverer” of the New World, millions of Native Americans already inhabited the Americas for centuries prior to his arrival.