By Susan C. Faircloth
Columbus Day celebrations in the United States – meant to honor the legacy of the man credited with “discovering” the New World – are almost as old as the nation itself. The earliest known Columbus Day celebration took place on Oct. 12, 1792, on the 300th anniversary of his landing. But since the 1990s, a growing number of states have begun to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day – a holiday meant to honor the culture and history of the people living in the Americas both before and after Columbus’ arrival.
In the following Q&A, Susan C. Faircloth, an enrolled member of the Coharie Tribe of North Carolina and professor of education at Colorado State University, explains the history of Indigenous Peoples Day and what it means to American education.
First, why is Columbus Day a problem?
For many Indigenous peoples, Columbus Day is a controversial holiday. This is because Columbus is viewed not as a discoverer, but rather as a colonizer. His arrival led to the forceful taking of land and set the stage for widespread death and loss of Indigenous ways of life.
When did Indigenous Peoples Day come about?
In 1990, South Dakota – currently the state with the third-largest population of Native Americans in the U.S. – became the first state to officially recognize Native Americans’ Day, commonly referred to as Indigenous Peoples Day in other parts of the country.
More than a dozen states and the District of Columbia now recognize Indigenous Peoples Day. Those states include Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia and Wisconsin.
How does Indigenous Peoples Day change things?
Indigenous Peoples Day offers an opportunity for educators to rethink how they teach what some have characterized as a “sanitized” story of the arrival of Columbus. This version omits or downplays the devastating impact of Columbus’ arrival on Indigenous peoples. Indigenous Peoples Day is an opportunity to reconcile tensions between these two perspectives.
Research has shown that many schools do not accurately represent Indigenous peoples when they teach history. I think this is true not only on Indigenous Peoples Day, but throughout the school year. Researchers have found that K-12 schools tend to teach about Native Americans as if they existed only in the past. By revising the curriculum to better reflect both past and current histories and stories of Native peoples, educators can more accurately teach students about their cultures, histories and traditions.
Has there been any pushback?
Yes, the shift from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day has met resistance from communities across the country. In 2021, parents in Parsippany, New Jersey, protested the local school board’s decision to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day in place of Columbus Day. Among other things, they cited lack of community input, failure to honor the legacy of Italian immigrants and the need for a “more balanced picture of Columbus.” In response, the school board removed the names of all holidays from its calendar. Now the holidays are just referred to as “days off.”
What resources do you recommend for Indigenous Peoples Day?
I would recommend “Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus” by sociologist and educator James Loewen. I would also recommend “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People” by historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. These books help illustrate both the impact of the arrival of Columbus on the Indigenous peoples of the Americas and the role of Indigenous peoples in the founding of the United States. This is information that is typically absent in K-12 schools.
Other resources are available from organizations such as the National Museum of the American Indian, Learning for Justice and IllumiNative. These resources include sample lesson plans, books and videos that reflect the diversity of Native American peoples and tribes. For example, one lesson plan from IllumiNative provides opportunities for students to learn about Indigenous Peoples Day and at the same time explore ways to honor and protect the land, air and water. Such lessons are important, as they address the ways in which conservation of natural resources is essential to the economic self-determination and self-sufficiency of Native nations.
Susan C. Faircloth is Professor & Director of the School of Education at Colorado State University
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dan beasley says
just another stupid idea by the left.
Andy B says
The article on the death of Columbus Day made me puke. More “woke” from you socialists.
Jimbo99 says
Well, from a FL Historical perspective, St Augustine, FL is diminished. Being Italian American, that day tends to also be a celebration of Italian American history. Instead of renaming the holiday, shared is fair enough ?
Dennis C Rathsam says
Columbus Day…Is a day set aside to honor the man that descovered America. Christopher Columbus, was Italian, not indeginous! Many Italians, who migrated here, many years ago, he is their hero. Look at the many things, the Italian did for America…They worked their asses off, during the Industrial revoution…They helped build this country! Who are these indeginous people? What did they do? If they want a day for themselves, thats great….But not on the expense of Columbus Day. Stop trying to re write the history of our nation. Yes I know its been proven, others were here first, but Columbus documented his trip. And we have been celibrating his day long before we herd the word indeginous.
Toto says
Maybe it’s because of the millions of indigenous (that refers to the native Americans-FYI) who were slaughtered, stolen their land, lied to, cheated etc. just to mention a few of the atrocities done since the arrival of white folks, entitled white folks. But let’s not write this in our history books, we’d never want to impose any kind of guilt on current day white folks. Let’s just never talk about it or learn from any kind of mistakes from our past. Sleep well Dennis…
Dennis C Rathsam says
I sleep very well sir….like a baby … Guilt, I wasnt there, were U? Was it wrong yes, but we had nothing to do with it U or me…Its the history of the United States of America…Current day white folks as U put it have learned , but its never going to change if U keep segregating the population. White folks, Black folks, Yellow folks! We are all Americans, we are all free!!!! Lose the hate, and make this a great country!
Bill C says
Yes, Columbus documented his trip. To quote from his journal about his contact with the Tainos, who were the indigenous people of what is now the Dominican Republic/Haiti: “They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features …They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron …They would make fine servants … With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” In Santo Domingo there stands today a fort constructed of huge blocks of stone, Forteleza Ozama, built in 1502, and the Tainos were enslaved to construct it. Hate to burst your bubble, but Columbus never set foot in North America.
Pierre Tristam says
I’d rather see this sort of front page
https://flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/EBC6785A-8609-4911-B50E-6D2B3AF8CEA7.jpeg
Mike G says
I agree Pierre however it should be a special day not a replacement for the traditional Columbus Day even if it was the Mafia that pushed to get a “Columbus Day”
Bill C says
How about replacing Columbus Day with Italian Heritage Day? Celebrate figures from the same historical period, the Italian Renaissance, great personages like Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael, Galileo?
Bill C says
ps How about “Indigenous People Day” to be celebrated on the Spring Equinox?
Timothy Patrick Welch says
Columbus;
Did he commit or condone genocide, no.
Was he a courageous explorer, yes.
Was he a friend to the indigenous people, yes.
Following your line of thought maybe we should stop space exploration because it may cause the genocide of a alien species.
Enjoy your freedom and pursuit of happiness.
Concerned Citizen says
Not sure where you got your facts but…
Columbus did indeed commit Genocide. And on such a large number he was removed from his post for it. His brutality was well documented against the people he came across. I don’t understand the fanatical need to worship this man. And why we insist on trying to give him credit for something he came nowhere close to doing.
Timothy Patrick Welch says
Please share your resources.
Concerned Citizen says
https://secure.understandingprejudice.org/nativeiq/columbus.htm
https://historycollection.com/columbus-scandalous-treatment-native-peoples-reaped-wrath-spain/
https://u.osu.edu/posterchildchristophercolumbus/villain-columbus/#:~:text=Enslaving%20and%20massacring%20are%20only%20a%20couple%20of,punished%20them%20for%20every%20small%20mistake%20they%20made.
https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/spotlight-primary-source/columbus-reports-his-first-voyage-1493
https://www.loc.gov/exhibits/exploring-the-early-americas/columbus-and-the-taino.html
There are so many to choose from. Google is your friend. But you want to sit here and argue with me as a History Major as to whether Columbus was a Saint. His atrocities were well documented. Also well documented was the fact that he NEVER set foot in the Americas. He knew he missed the mainland.
Why do you insist on giving this man credit for something never done?
Timothy Patrick Welch says
Thanks for providing your references.
No indication of genocide by Columbus, the indigenous people were found to be engaged in active slave trading, they may have been a source of a STD that spread through Europe, and some information sited is fictious and much is sensationalized. I will continue to search for reliable source material on the Columbus Families rule and will post any insight.
Timothy Patrick Welch says
Its not clear to what extent the Columbus Family abused their position of authority, but it is clear that their successors rule was limited and the reputation of the Columbus Family was restored. And as such, shows Spain’s support and approval of the brothers actions.
I will concede that He did have some involvement in the slave trade.
Concerned Citizen says
You win.
Thousands of articles and documents out there. Some even by the Spanish crown. But somehow they are all wrong. And Columbus is a Saint. Wow history really got that wrong.
Can you cite your sources please? Seems everything I learned was wrong. And I need to coreect my knowledge base.
Timothy Patrick Welch says
You simply must understand there are not many historical documents, and they are in Spanish. I suggest you start with sources like his journals and looking into the sources listed in Wikipedia.
Genocide- the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group.
Columbus traded with the indigenous people. He did not take by force and they treated Him a as god like figure. During this time in world history expansion of the kingdom (Spain) in the name of God and Country was the norm. And as such these new conquests represented the expansion of Spain. Yes the inhabitance of these Caribbean Islands were taxes without representation. Think of all the current Spanish speaking countries in Central and South America, and the Caribbean as expansion of the Spanish Empire. You simply cant believe in the fourteen years from the time he first set sail on is first voyage to the new world until his death, that he committed genocide. He was involved with other things like discovering and exploring new found places, arranging financing for his adventures, finding crews, meeting with the Queen, clearing his name and enjoying his family.
Could he and his brothers have been poor managers of Spain’s new world, by the standards of their time, maybe. Could the crew members and subsequent immigrants to the new land have been criminals, maybe.
Timothy Patrick Welch says
“Concerned Citizen says” if your still there look at a you tube video
Search for: 12 discoveries they don’t want you to know about african history
Its kind of interesting
Gary De Lia says
I’m a fiercely proud Italian American, but have always felt we should have honored the Italian that our country is named for, Amerigo Vespucci. He was an explorer from Florence Italy who first recognized the New World as a separate continent, later named The Americas in his honor.
Land of no turn signals says says
Yea why not! while your at it knock off Easter and Christmas somebody must find them offensive.Ridiculous.
Wah says
I’m Italian and we’ve Never mixed up Columbus Day with being Italian. Columbus was a brutal man. So brutal that he was sent back by the other colonizers. Columbus got lost. He didn’t “discover” anything. He brought European contagious illnesses to contaminate the native Americans.
The responses I see written here are not a surprise to me because that’s the whitewashed version of history you were taught in school. We were not taught the truth about what really happened because those in power want you to believe the white man is somehow superior to other races. This is no different than what’s going on today.
It has less to do with being”woke” than it does with facing the truth. The same way y’all can’t face the truth about the pandemic and mitigation. You’d rather be fed a constant stream of lies from fox, OAN and conspiracy theories than drop the narrative that at least your “whiteness” makes you special somehow.
It’s not rewriting history, it’s telling the truth about history and you can’t handle the truth, about anything.
Buncha whining big babies.
Sherry says
WOW! FOX/Facebook hate spreaders are apparently scraping the bottom of gutter for talking points, literally. . . seems they are quite comfortable there among the “puke” and garbage of humanity. First it was Brad and now Andy throwing up. . . how very ‘”original” and “impressive”!
@ AB . . . Now that I think of it, isn’t “puking” part of drug detox? Perhaps a mass vomit session would actually be quite cathartic in releasing members of the mindless trump/FOX/Facebook cult back into reality. Great idea, Andy! We miss our reasonable, thoughtful, peaceful neighbors who cared about things like truth, and our planet.
Regarding the days of recognition . . . I, as usual, agree with Pierre. Why can’t we celebrate ALL indigenous people, history and cultures, and also celebrate those “Explorers” who did NOT massacre them.
Ray W. says
Thank you, Sherry.
Is it possible that individuals comprising a small subset of our population actually feel physical pain when they don’t get their way? Just as some people are exceptionally capable of feeling empathy for others, perhaps Brad and Andy are the opposite of empaths, in that they can feel something so strongly that they physically have to throw up when confronted with something they dislike.
Or, Sherry might just be right; puking after reading something dislikable really is a side effect from consuming too much toxic Trump.
Leo says
CNN, MSNBC Drop In ‘Trust’ Ratings As Fox News Channel Rises
https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2021/08/09/cnn-msnbc-drop-in-trust-ratings-as-fox-news-channel-rises/?sh=1495051b27c0
Mike Cocchiola says
I’m 96% Italian, or so says Ancestry.com. And, this may upset other Italians, but I am so in favor of quickly exchanging Columbus Cay for Indigenous People’s Day. Hopefully by next year so we can stop the madness of honoring a colonizing murderer by going out and shopping and begin to recognize the human carnage the so-called heroic explorers brought to indigenous people in the Americas and over the world.
If Italian Americans want to honor their heritage, honor Dr. Anthony Fauchi, or Galileo, Dante Alighieri, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, or Sophia Loren to name a few more worthy of a day of honor.
Mark says
Did indigenous people do something that day? I’d rather see people quit trying to change history to support their so called wokeness.
Concerned Citizen says
It’s not about wokeness.
But rather being accurate with history. Columbus never discovered America. He never stepped foot on the North American continent. It’s been well documented that others have been here before. But for some reason we insist on giving this man credit for something he never did.
Maybe it’s because he has a cool name? Who knows. But if w are going to cry about not changing history then perhaps give credit where it’s due.
Combat Vet says
You “Woke” nut jobs are a real pain in the touche!
Sal says
The only indigenous people were Adam and Eve.
Brad Labate says
This is so stupid, you want your indigenous day, pick another day, you have 364 other days. Why pick this day.. other than you want to cause trouble…
Concerned Citizen says
Columbus did not discover America.
Surely his expeditions paved the way. But actual “discovery” was made by Italian navigator and explorer Giovanni Caboto (known in English as John Cabot) is credited with the discovery of continental North America on June 24, 1497, under the commission of Henry VII of England.
Take it further back. It is a known fact that Vikings were here long before. Specifically Lief Eriksson. And indigenous people were here before that. Why people want to give a man credit that never even made it to the mainland is baffling.
But hey whatever makes you feel better go for it.
DaleL says
History is frequently messy. Christopher Columbus, by his voyage, made the Americas known to Europeans. For that he is and should be famous. His treatment of the peaceful island people he encountered was, by the standards of his day, pretty typical.
The claim that Europeans (Columbus) brought slavery to the Americas is not quite accurate. The Aztecs, for example, kept slaves long before Europeans brought their version to the Americas.
The indigenous peoples of the Americas were not one uniform society. We (US Americans) tend to think only in terms of North America, specifically the US. However, the conquest by the Spanish of the Aztecs, Maya city states, and Inca was not entirely one sided or predestined to happen. The Aztec empire conquest by Spanish conquistadors, led by Hernán Cortés, succeeded only with the considerable assistance of other indigenous city states. The Spanish conquest of the Maya in Central America took 162 years and was not complete until 1697.
I’m fine with a combination of Columbus and Indigenous Peoples holiday.
Sherry says
Ahhhhhh. . . the word “WOKE”. . . just another four letter FOX/Facebook/OAN/Newsmax/Limbaugh mud slinging word for the “cult” to use against those who still use their capacity for “independent” thought.
I am laughing at the image of cult members spewing vomit as they mindlessly chant “WOKE! WOKE! WOKE!” Their God trump watches them with delight and laughter. . . rubbing his greedy hands together. . . with the cult’s dollar bills floating in the air. Now, that’s a political cartoon waiting to be drawn. . . LOL!
Please do call me “WOKE”. . . because I see it as being the complete opposite of being a brain washed, zombie d, trump/FOX/Facebook cult member who long ago gave up their own thinking ability and moral code to become a fear filled hater of all things factual, honest, reasonable and just. “WOKE”. . . I see it as being “conscious”. . . aware that I share this planet with a great multitude of “equal” human beings. Aware that I have a responsibility to be a good steward of our shared planet, nation, culture and society. . . as well as our shared humanity.
“I AM PROUDLY WOKE”!
Pierre Tristam says
This is instructive, along with the Vox article to which it’s linked, “9 reasons Christopher Columbus was a murderer, tyrant, and scoundrel.”
https://youtu.be/fNqOGhDMm8k
Pogo says
@Pierre Tristam
Thank you.
I laughed when Isabella, with Ferdinand on the left, made their cameo. My intention to speak of them was the reason I visited this topic again. Their role in the video was much like it is in the cliches (In 1400 and 92, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…) and mythology that have passed themselves off as “history” in American grammar schools, i.e., Isabella indulging Chris to get him out of their hair. The Catholic Monarchs of Spain deserve seats in the 9th Circle right next to Chris:
“…During the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and long afterwards the Inquisition was active in prosecuting people for violations of Catholic orthodoxy such as crypto-Judaism, heresy, Protestantism, blasphemy, and bigamy. The last trial for crypto-Judaism was held in 1818.
In 1492 the monarchs issued a decree of expulsion of Jews, known formally as the Alhambra Decree, which gave Jews in Spain four months to either convert to Catholicism or leave Spain. Tens of thousands of Jews emigrated to other lands such as Portugal, North Africa, the Low Countries, Italy and the Ottoman Empire…”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Monarchs_of_Spain
The never ending story:
the crusades
https://www.google.com/search?q=the+crusades
“There was a time when religion ruled the world. It is known as the Dark Ages.”
― Ruth Hurmence Green
https://www.google.com/search?d&q=Ruth+Hurmence+Green
Sherry says
Thank you again and again Pierre for publishing and posting actual “FACTS”!
It should be greatly troubling to all “intelligent/educated” voters that around 1/3 of our citizens are so brainwashed that they prefer to live their lives rejecting credible “FACTS” . . . and, instead passionately embrace whatever lies and garbage their “mind controllers” . . . mostly from Facebook/FOX/OAN/Newsmax/trump/Limbaugh. . . feed them.
trump is now saying that Republicans should not vote in the 2022 and 2024 elections until the election of 2020 is “solved”. . . Wow! What a great idea! Take a Read:
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-says-republicans-wont-vote-midterms-2024-election-if-2020-fraud-isnt-solved-1638730
Dolly says
The left is uninformed, ignorant and unAmerican. You want to change our history? Go to China and try that crap over there.