Columbus Day
To the Editor:
Did you know Monday, Oct. 11, 2021 is “Indigenous People Day”? I read this on a calendar below the designation Columbus Day.
I looked up the definition of ‘indigenous’ and found the following ‘meanings’ listed: native (adj.). Synonyms for indigenous include: native, original, aboriginal, homegrown, local, ethnic. An antonym for indigenous is foreign.
I remember celebrating Columbus Day in elementary school by making paper boats and learning about Christopher Columbus’s voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. Instead of finding an alternate trading route to the Far East for the Spanish aristocracy, he landed in a “New World.” Wikepedia defines the holiday, “Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas on Oct. 12, 1492.”
Columbus’s discovery initiated Spanish exploration and colonization of America followed by the French and English.
I was taught in elementary school about friendly indigenous people and hostile indigenous people. I learned about the Mayflower voyage, the settlements of New England. I learned about Cortes and the treatment the conquistadors imposed on residents of the “New World.” The collision of different languages and cultures brought conflict. That same conflict exists today.
Legislation to create Columbus Day a federal holiday was signed by President Lyndon Johnson on June 28, 1968. Oct. 12 was the designated day, however, the Uniform Monday Holiday Act passed in 1968 “shifted several holidays to always fall on a Monday and saw the establishment of Columbus Day.” In 1971, when the legislation went into effect, the holiday was to be observed on the second Monday in October.
Several states in the United States do not recognize Columbus Day—the text I referenced included Texas as one of them. Some states have replaced Columbus Day with celebrations of Indigenous People’s Day, which began as a ‘counter-celebration’ challenging the dominant narrative by representing a social cause.
I’m glad indigenous people have a language and culture to celebrate. Their language and culture should never eradicate or replace the meaning of Columbus Day in the history of the United States of America.
Cindy Rodibaugh
Flatonia