![]() ![]() "As far as we're concerned, we're going to keep protesting it until Columbus Day is abolished." "It's patently absurd to honor Indigenous people and the man who tortured and murdered their ancestors," said Jackson Meredith, an organizer. Denney Federal Building, calling for an outright end to the holiday in Columbus' name at all levels of government. Activists plan a small protest outside the Robert V. Some feel a split day causes further harm. Events on Monday will focus on the newer addition, including unveiling a statue honoring the first Native American physician, Dr. ![]() In 2016, Lincoln, Nebraska, joined other cities adding Indigenous Peoples' Day to the calendar on the same date as Columbus Day. "We have a mayor that's doing everything he can to attack the Italian-American community, including canceling its parade, removing statues, changing the Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples' Day by fiat," Bochetto said. Monday will be the first city holiday under the new name. ![]() Kenney previously signed an executive order changing the city's annual Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples' Day. Philadelphia lawyer George Bochetto, who has been fighting Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney's administration to uncover the statue, said Saturday many felt efforts to remove it were an attack on Italian-American heritage. Debates over monuments and statues of the Italian explorer tread similar ground, as in Philadelphia where the city placed a box over a Columbus statue last year in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer. "Not honoring Indigenous peoples on this day just continues to erase our history, our contributions and the fact that we were the first inhabitants of this country," Begay said.Īcross the country, tension over the two holidays has been playing out since the early 1990s. On Friday, President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation of "Indigenous Peoples' Day," the most significant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Columbus.Ĭolumbus' arrival began centuries of exploration and colonization by European nations, bringing violence, disease and other suffering to native people already living in the Western Hemisphere. Protestors are seen during a rally by environmental and indigenous rights activists at Lafayette Square across from the White House in Washington on October 11, 2021. October 11 is the federal holiday Columbus Day, but the day was also officially recognized as Indigenous Peoples' Day following a proclamation by U.S. ![]()
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