Today is when Columbus Day is observed in the United States of America*. For many indigenous peoples in the Americas, Columbus stands as a symbol of their destruction through imported diseases, and the oppression that came in the wake of European colonialism. One flash-point in these struggles is the yearly Columbus Day Parade in Denver, Colorado, the first State to make it an official holiday, where American Indian Movement (AIM) members, other Native activists, and non-Native groups marching in solidarity are often arrested attempting to block the parade-route.

AIM member Glenn Morris being arrested at
Saturday’s Columbus Day parade in Colorado.

Some have tried to paint Indian resistance to the holiday as “lefties” who have gone too far with their “political correctness”, a view that diminishes the very real ongoing struggle for justice, respect, and survival by Native peoples.

“Currently, mainstream America has a “just get over it” attitude to native peoples, dismissing our grievances as political correctness gone awry. But in the recent words of an elder, “If the shoe were on the other foot, Americans would carry laminated copies of their ancestors’ treaties until they got their just dues.” Asking the U.S. government to abandon Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day is akin to asking for a sea change in the national psychology. It demands a soul-searching objectivity that is simply too threatening to the mainstream culture and economy.”

Efforts to stop celebrations of Columbus Day have met with limited success, Minnesota doesn’t recognize Columbus Day, and South Dakota changed the name to “Native American Day”, but outside of these areas a sense of (perhaps willful) confusion over the issue remains.

“By commemorating the discovery of our country, undisputedly by Columbus, we’re not condoning the oppression that followed but recognizing that from that day forward, from Oct. 12, 1492, the possibility of this nation was born.”

Until that moment of “soul-searching objectivity” happens, Native American activists will continue to speak out, organize alternate events, and protest until change comes.

* The rest of the world observes it on the 12th, the actual day of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. Venezuela celebrates a “Day of Indigenous Resistance” instead of Columbus Day.

Tags: American Indian, Columbus Day, indigenous, Native American, politics