Contrary to what you might have heard in primary school sing-alongs, Christopher Columbus didn’t exactly discover America—and some Native American groups are advocating for renaming the holiday we currently have to celebrate him in honor of their ancestors instead. If proponents of the change are successful, Columbus Day will become Indigenous Peoples Day in the city that is home to the largest population of Native Americans (in the state that's home to the largest population of Native Americans, FYI).
Don’t worry, if you get that day off from work, this wouldn’t change that—the proponents of the change just think it would be a sign of respect to the people who were already on this continent when Columbus showed up.
This week, the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission presented their findings in favor of the change. The Commission had studied the issue and logged hours of interviews with community leaders and organized forums in collaboration with the Los Angeles City and County Native American Commission, as the Daily Bruin reports. The next step will be a formal presentation of the committee’s recommendation to the full City Council on Friday, a presentation that will be made by Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell, who is himself a member of the Wyandotte tribe.
Not everybody supports dropping Columbus Day. In particular, the Federated Italo-Americans of Southern California, who think Indigenous Peoples Day should not come at the expense of the existing holiday, which, from their perspective, honors the legacy of immigration which reshaped our country into the diverse place we know today.
So far only the cities of Minneapolis and Seattle have officially changed Columbus Day into Indigenous Peoples Day, though a day honoring Native Americans is also recognized in Berkeley and Santa Cruz. For Los Angeles to make the switch would be a symbolic victory for the movement and would likely be a stepping-stone to a campaign to make the change statewide in California.
Native American activists have been in the spotlight in recent weeks with the grassroots protest movement around the Dakota Access Pipeline. Last night in Echo Park, a fundraiser was held in solidarity with the Lakota tribe who are fighting to preserve the Standing Rock Indian Reservation they call home.
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