Biden honors Indigenous Peoples’ Day & has some harsh words for Columbus

President Biden Friday became the first U.S. leader to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day alongside Columbus Day, another sign of progress on recognizing the contributions of Native Americans.

The day will be observed Oct. 11, along with Columbus Day. While Native Americans have campaigned for years for local and national days in recognition of the country’s indigenous peoples, Biden’s announcement appeared to catch many by surprise.

“We recognize Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society,” Biden said in the proclamation.

Biden also noted the enduring racist history of the American government’s behavior towards native peoples.

“For generations, Federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate Native cultures,” Biden wrote in a proclamation.

In a separate proclamation about Columbus Day, Biden praised the role of Italian Americans in U.S. society, but also referenced the violence and harm Columbus and other explorers of the age brought about on the Americas.

Making landfall in what is now the Bahamas on Oct. 12, 1492, Columbus, an Italian, was the first of a wave of European explorers who decimated Native populations in the Americas in quests for gold and other wealth, including people to enslave.

“Today, we also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities,” Biden wrote. “It is a measure of our greatness as a Nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them.”

John Echohawk, executive director of the Native American Rights Fund, said Biden’s decision to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day was an important step.

“Big changes happen from each small step, and we hope this administration intends to continue making positive steps towards shaping a brighter future for all citizens,” Echohawak said.

Columbus Day has in recent years become a cultural battleground between Italian-Americans who spent a century deifying Columbus as a symbol of their aspirations, and progressives who counter that the victims of colonialism are the real heroes of American history.