Is Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2023 a federal holiday? In which states is it observed as a holiday?
Indigenous Peoples’ Day was started as an alternative to Columbus Day, to recognize the histories and stories of those who inhabited the Americas first.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed with a flotilla across the Atlantic Ocean and discovered a “new world” for the “old” one on 12 October. That date is still used to celebrate the historic landmark in human history. But the events that took place thereafter and the peoples that were most affected have been generally overlooked.
However, nearly 500 years later, South Dakota became the first state to change the narrative, replacing the commemoration of the explorer and colonist into a day to recognize those who had inhabited the lands prior to the arrival of Europeans. In 2021, President Biden proclaimed the date as Indigenous Peoples’ Day to be a national holiday and celebrated alongside Columbus Day.
The presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, while it increased national spotlight, didn’t make it a federal holiday. That would require Congress to pass legislation cementing the day in the US calendar of federally recognized holidays. So far, only four states; Maine, New Mexico, South Dakota and Vermont along with the District of Columbia and two territories that recognize the day as a regional holiday in honor of those who arrived in the Americas long before Columbus “discovered” them. Three other states, Alabama, Nebraska and Rhode Island have a paid holiday that recognizes both indigenous peoples and Columbus.
A brief history of Indigenous Peoples’ Day
The idea of replacing Columbus Day with a holiday for first inhabitants of the Americas was first presented in 1977 by participants at the United Nations International Conference on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations in the Americas. Ahead of the 100th anniversary of the of Wounded Knee Massacre, where US soldiers killed around 300 Lakota people, the governor of South Dakota responded to calls from Tim Giago, a Native American publisher, and asked the state’s legislature to proclaim 1990 as the “Year of Reconciliation” between Native Americans and whites. Lawmakers voted unanimously for the proposal and South Dakota became the first state to do away with Columbus Day and replace it with Native American Day.
As celebrations were being organized in the San Francisco Bay Area for the “Quincentennial Jubilee” of the landing of Christopher Columbus in what is now the Bahamas, a group called Resistance 500 made plans for a counter-celebration. The group convinced the Berkeley City Council to replace the 12 October Columbus Day with the Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People in 1992. The unanimous vote made Berkeley the first city to do away with celebrating the troubled history of the explorer/colonizer and instead celebrate Native Americans and is generally credited with starting Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Celebration of Indigenous Peoples spreads
Although Columbus Day celebrates Italian heritage as well as the Genovese-born explorer’s discovery of the Americas on 12 October 1492, the history of harm and suffering that befell the inhabitants of the lands colonized created ever louder calls to change the focus of the holiday. Over the years this movement has gained momentum to where now well over a hundred cities recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day to focus on the contributions and history of Native peoples.
More states have followed South Dakota over the years with nearly a score celebrating only Indigenous Peoples’ Day or in conjunction with Columbus Day. They include the District of Columbia along with the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Hawai’i, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin.