Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day? It depends where you live

The observance of Columbus Day versus Indigenous Peoples’ Day varies across the United States as communities reevaluate the meaning of the October federal holiday.

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.

South Dakota was the first state to drop Columbus in favor of celebrating those who settled the Dakotan lands, declaring the second Monday of October ‘Native Americans’ Day’ from 1990.

Now a host of other states have joined South Dakota in outright rejecting Columbus Day or celebrating the indigenous people alongside the ‘discovery’

This ongoing debate highlights America’s evolving understanding of its complex history which has rarely been contended with.