Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples' Day?

On the second Monday in October, how do Americans view the dueling holidays: Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day?

Don’t Celebrate Columbus: According to the New York Times (Lean Left bias), Indigenous groups and other activists have “urged people” not to celebrate Columbus Day, saying the Italian explorer for whom the holiday is named “brought genocide and colonization to communities that had been in the Americas for thousands of years.” The Times explained that Indigenous Peoples’ Day, first proposed in the 1970s, is a day that “may help bring attention to some of the ways Indigenous peoples are discriminated against and are disproportionately affected by climate change, gender violence, and health issues.” An opinion published on Native News Online (not rated) said, "Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not just a counterpoint to Columbus Day—it’s a declaration. A refusal to be erased. A reminder that we are more than what happened to us. We are who we have always been. So yes, even though the powers that be chose not to recognize us this year, we still recognize ourselves."

What Columbus Set In Motion: Geoffrey Ingersoll, writing an opinion for The Daily Caller (Right), said that “history is a beautiful mess, and Columbus is a key part of it.” Columbus' sailing across the Atlantic “undeniably set in motion the conditions that gave rise to the founding of America,” which, according to Ingersoll, was the most “consequential contribution” for the “global decline of human suffering.” Ingersoll explained that before Columbus set sail, slavery, slaughter, ritual sacrifice, ritual torture, massacres, wanton murder of women and children, forced assimilation, and forced adoption all existed in America “free of European influence,” even though people “rarely hear about any of this because the ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ movement’ that ascended to the heights of culture over the last 20 years.” The “European settlers rapidly intensified” the violence and intertribal competition, but “the way we hear it now,” Ingersoll said, “these people were just gathering berries when Euros racked with scurvy started dropping biological weapons and gathering the survivors as slaves.” Throughout American history, we have “unironically and without shame” honored the Indigenous peoples for their loyalty and bravery, especially within the military, with names like the Apache attack helicopter, Chinooks and Blackhawks, and Tomahawk missiles, as Ingersoll stated, “they [Indigenous peoples] are, in fact, part of us. Columbus Day, according to Ingersoll, is not “some effort to whitewash history” but rather honoring the “beautiful mess” that history is, while recognizing Columbus as a pivotal and necessary part of what we have today.

Disrespecting Italian Americans: A guest writer (Center) for the Columbus Dispatch (Center) focused on the “estimated 70,000 Italian Americans” living and working in Columbus, Ohio, who have been disrespected by the removal of Christopher Columbus’ statue. The writer explained that “Columbus Day was not named to recognize or celebrate Christopher Columbus” but rather “to acknowledge, apologize to and welcome Italian Americans as an integral part of American society.” Yet, locally elected leaders have “placed the admitted racism and discrimination faced by one ethnic group over another” by refusing to recognize Columbus Day and replacing it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The writer asserted that instead of finding another day to celebrate Indigenous people, Italian Americans’ past struggles with racism and discrimination “have been ignored and swept under the rug.” The removal of the Columbus statue also removed a “source of pride for Italian Americans,” as the writer explained, “selectively disregard[ing] Columbus Day is an insult to the Italian Americans who love and helped build Columbus, Ohio, and this nation.

For Context: President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Monday, "reclaiming" Columbus Day as a Federal holiday. He also stated on Truth Social that he was "bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes" after "Democrats did everything possible to destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much." There are also reports of Christopher Columbus statues being repaired and restored following the damage or removal of over 30 statues during racial justice protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020.

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