a people united against oppressors

More and more communities recognize the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples' Day - either as a joint celebration on Columbus Day or totally replace it. 

Those more conscious choose to acknowledge and honor the suffering of the colonized and not gloss over the injustices of the colonizer, especially those perpetuated by the contentious Christopher Columbus. 

Portrait of Chief Yalektit by Robert Shetterly, Americans Who Tell the Truth

Columbus may have formed part of a large narrative of American history, yet he remains emblematic to the beginnings of the mistreatment of native peoples, the indigenous slave trade, the usurpation of their lands, the deaths of their people, the destruction of their cultures, the destruction of their local way of life.

Unfortunately this year's Columbus Day Proclamation from the White House is blatantly divisive and obviously in keeping with the standard Trumpian version of governance. Shamelessly, Columbus Day is still recognized by the US government as a federal holiday.

"Sadly, in recent years, radical activists have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus’s legacy.  These extremists seek to replace discussion of his vast contributions with talk of failings, his discoveries with atrocities, and his achievements with transgressions.  Rather than learn from our history, this radical ideology and its adherents seek to revise it, deprive it of any splendor, and mark it as inherently sinister." ~ Donald J. Trump

On Monday in the nation's capital, there is no Columbus Day. The D.C. Council voted to replace it with Indigenous Peoples' Day in a temporary move that it hopes to make permanent. 

"It's become a trend. It's about celebrating people instead of thinking about somebody who actually caused genocide on a population or tried to cause the genocide of an entire population. By bringing Indigenous Peoples' Day, we're bringing awareness that we're not going to allow someone like that to be glorified into a hero, because of the hurt that he caused to Indigenous people of America." ~ Baley Champagne, United Houma Nation, Louisiana 

For colonized people of our nation Columbus Day has long been hurtful. It conjures the violent history of 500 years of colonial oppression at the hands of European explorers and those who settled here - a history whose ramifications and wounds still run deep today and are only beginning to be accepted openly.

May the collective voice of the people continue to speak to truth and stand against any oppressor.