Current:Home > MarketsWhat is Indigenous Peoples' Day? What to know about push to eliminate Columbus Day -Edge Finance Strategies
What is Indigenous Peoples' Day? What to know about push to eliminate Columbus Day
View
Date:2025-04-12 11:46:30
Monday is becoming increasingly known as Indigenous Peoples' Day, a commemoration of Native American history and culture.
While the second Monday in October has historically been celebrated as Columbus Day and is still federally recognized as such, many have pushed for moving away from the holiday to acknowledge the atrocities Columbus committed against people living in the Americas long before his arrival.
Indigenous Peoples' Day has been federally recognized through proclamation for the past three years. In 2023, President Joe Biden proclaimed the day to “honor perseverance and courage of Indigenous peoples.”
While not everywhere in the U.S. recognizes Indigenous Peoples' Day, advocates say it's important to denounce Columbus’ violent history and recognize Native American communities today.
Here is what to know:
More:The pilgrims didn't invite Native Americans to a feast. Why the Thanksgiving myth matters.
Is Indigenous Peoples' Day an official holiday?
It depends on where you live, but Columbus Day is still a federal holiday.
Approximately 29 states and Washington, D.C. do not celebrate Columbus Day. About 216 cities have renamed it or replaced it with Indigenous Peoples' Day, according to renamecolumbusday.org. Some states recognize Indigenous Peoples Day via proclamation, while others treat it as an official holiday.
At the federal level, Indigenous Peoples' Day has received presidential proclamations from the Biden administration for the last three years.
"Indigenous peoples are a beacon of resilience, strength, and perseverance as well as a source of incredible contributions. Indigenous peoples and Tribal Nations continue to practice their cultures, remember their heritages, and pass down their histories from generation to generation," Biden wrote in the 2023 proclamation on the holiday.
Why are some states abandoning Columbus Day?
The grade school lesson about the explorer Christopher Columbus sailing the "ocean blue" is incomplete.
Indigenous communities lived in the Western Hemisphere for tens of thousands of years before Columbus arrived, and contact with European colonies led to devastating loss of life, tradition and land for American Indians, according to the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.
Critics of the current federal holiday point out that Columbus committed several crimes against humanity when he reached the Western Hemisphere. Here are some examples of those atrocities, as compiled by Philadelphia Magazine:
- Columbus cut off the hands of approximately 10,000 natives in Haiti and the Dominican Republic because they failed to provide gold every three months.
- Columbus cut off the legs of native children who tried to run from them.
- He aided in sex trafficking nine and ten-year-old girls.
Moving away from Columbus Day and celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day helps to recognize Indigenous perspectives for a more complete look at history, the museum states.
By celebrating Indigenous People's Day, the museum says we can also recognize the Native Americans who are still here and fighting for recognition and environmental rights.
veryGood! (1)
Related
- IRS recovers $4.7 billion in back taxes and braces for cuts with Trump and GOP in power
- Brother of mom accused of killing husband before writing book on grief speaks out
- US ambassador to Japan calls Chinese ban on Japanese seafood ‘economic coercion’
- Team USA shuts out Europe in foursomes for first time in Solheim Cup history
- Warm inflation data keep S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq under wraps before Fed meeting next week
- 'El Juicio (The Trial)' details the 1976-'83 Argentine dictatorship's reign of terror
- Federal judge again strikes down California law banning high capacity gun magazines
- Judge peppers lawyers in prelude to trial of New York’s business fraud lawsuit against Trump
- Whoopi Goldberg is delightfully vile as Miss Hannigan in ‘Annie’ stage return
- 5 ways Deion Sanders' Colorado team can shock Oregon and move to 4-0
Ranking
- Trump's 'stop
- Dwyane Wade on revealing to Gabrielle Union he fathered another child: 'It was all scary'
- The new iPhone 15, Plus, Pro and Pro Max release on Friday. Here's everything to know.
- Biologists look to expand suitable habitat for North America’s largest and rarest tortoise
- Off the Grid: Sally breaks down USA TODAY's daily crossword puzzle, Triathlon
- Father arrested 10 years after 'Baby Precious' found dead at Portland, Oregon recycling center
- A fire at an Iranian defense ministry’s car battery factory has been extinguished, report says
- A Louisiana fugitive was captured in Mexico after 32 years on the run — and laughs as he's handcuffed
Recommendation
'Kraven the Hunter' spoilers! Let's dig into that twisty ending, supervillain reveal
Gun violence is the ultimate ‘superstorm,’ President Biden says as he announces new federal effort
The fight over Arizona’s shipping container border wall ends with dismissal of federal lawsuits
UAW's Fain announces expanded strike, targets 38 GM, Stellantis distribution plants
The company planning a successor to Concorde makes its first supersonic test
2 teens held in fatal bicyclist hit-and-run video case appear in adult court in Las Vegas
Jailhouse letter adds wrinkle in case of mom accused of killing husband, then writing kids’ book
Youngstown City Council Unanimously Votes Against an ‘Untested and Dangerous’ Tire Pyrolysis Plant