Christopher Columbus, your ship may have sailed

More cities giving his holiday the heave-ho

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

But in 2017, the tradition of honoring the famed Italian explorer may be sinking fast.

A growing number of cities are abandoning ship and replacing Columbus Day — celebrated Monday — with Indigenous Peoples Day, also known by some as Native Americans Day.

On Thursday, the Austin City Council became the latest community to go that route, approving a resolution recognizing the second Monday of every October as Indigenous Peoples Day and encouraging schools to teach Native American history.

Austin’s move comes after similar action in August in Los Angeles — the biggest city to boot the holiday — and nearly two dozen more places, such as Burbank, Calif., and Bangor, Maine.

The issue has been a delicate one. Native American groups say the holiday embraces Western colonialism and pays tribute to a man who promoted the trans-Atlantic slave trade and is responsible for the genocide of indigenous people. Italian Americans see the move to scrap the holiday as an affront to their ethnic heritage.

“On behalf of the Italian community, we want to celebrate with you,” Ann Potenza, president of Federated Italo-Americans of Southern California, said at a hearing in Los Angeles in August, the Los Angeles Times reported. “We just don’t want it to be at the expense of Columbus Day.”

A few communities have angled for a compromise. Salt Lake City officials declared Tuesday that they would keep Columbus Day but observe Indigenous Peoples Day on the same day.

The holiday lands this year amid a fierce debate over monuments to Confederate generals and a surge in visibility for rallies by white nationalists.

As the holiday approached, New York police kept 24-hour guard over the imposing Columbus statue in Midtown. Vandals had splashed red paint over the marble in September and wrote “hate will not be tolerated.”