Since 1971, the second Monday of October has been a federal holiday to commemorate Christopher Columbus –– the Italian explorer long credited with "discovering" what is known as North America.
The focus of that celebration has changed in recent years, however, as the impact of that "discovery" and the imprint of Indigenous peoples are remembered and honored.
In 2021, then-President Joe Biden issued a proclamation to officially honor Native Americans, their irrefutable contributions to the country in the face of genocide, forced assimilation, and generations-long discrimination.
"I still don't think I've fully absorbed what that has meant," Dylan Baca an Indigenous activist who helped advocate for federal recognition of the holiday, told NPR. "This is a profound thing the president has done, and it's going to mean a lot to so many people."
In 2017, Baca founded an organization with Arizona State Senator Jamescita Peshlaki, the Indigenous Peoples' Initiative, with the mission to reclaim the narrative around Columbus Day by sharing the positive and more accurate history of Native Americans on this day.
What is Indigenous Peoples' Day?
Indigenous Peoples' Day fends off a "whitewashing" of American history that praises European explorers like Columbus with "discovering" places and people who were already here and inflicting brutal violence upon them.
Centering explorers like Columbus while leaving out the truth of their violence overlooks the people whose land was stolen to create this nation in the first place.
Indigenous Peoples' Day was first proposed in 1977 by Indigenous advocates at a United Nations conference. In 1989, South Dakota became the first state to establish a holiday honoring Indigenous peoples in place of Columbus Day, officially observing Native Americans' Day beginning in 1990.
How to Celebrate?
There isn't necessarily one way to celebrate or appreciate the day, Mandy Van Heuvelen, cultural interpreter coordinator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, told NPR.
"It can be a day of reflection of our history in the United States, the role Native people have played in it, the impacts that history has had on native people and communities, and also a day to gain some understanding of the diversity of Indigenous peoples," she said.
Biden's proclamation, the work of Indigenous organizers, and more, Van Heuvelen says, raise awareness around the vast contributions and history Native Americans have in the US.
"What these changes accomplish, piece by piece, is visibility for Native people in the United States," she said.
"Until Native people are fully seen in our society and in everyday life, we can't accomplish those bigger changes. As long as Native people remain invisible, it's much easier to look past those real issues and those real concerns within those communities," she added.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day also serves as an opportunity to raise awareness about ongoing issues affecting Native communities, including the crisis of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls, whose cases have historically received limited media attention and resources.
Although Indigenous Peoples' Day is recognized by numerous states and cities, Columbus Day remains the official name of the federal holiday observed on the second Monday in October.
For more information on Indigenous Peoples' Day, please click here.
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