Some states celebrate indigenous people instead of Columbus

In New Hampshire, a bill to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day was retained in committee this year and will be voted on in the early days of the next legislative session, which starts in January. At least two towns in the state have already renamed the holiday.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper issued proclamations recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day.

In Oklahoma, which is home to 39 tribes, Monday’s holiday is jointly marked as Oklahoma Native American Day and Columbus Day. Gov. Kevin Stitt, one of the first tribal members to be elected governor in the U.S., this year signed into law a measure that moved Native American Day from November to the second Monday in October.

California celebrates Native American Day in September. A group of Native American activists planned to board a dozen traditional canoes Monday to circumnavigate Alcatraz Island in an effort to reclaim the former federal prison as a symbol of indigenous rights.

Since 1990, South Dakota has marked the second Monday in October as Native Americans’ Day, an official state holiday, according to the Pew Research Center. In Hawaii it’s known as Discoverers’ Day, though it isn’t an official state holiday, the center said.

The change to Indigenous Peoples Day in a growing number of cities and states has prompted some backlash in conservative circles and among Italian Americans. University of Maine College Republicans, for example, have described the move as part of a “radical left-wing agenda.”

But Native Americans in some states have welcomed the change and said it was time to pay homage to Native Americans instead of Columbus.

Democratic New Mexico state Rep. Derrick Lente of Sandia Pueblo, who sponsored that state’s legislation changing the holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day, said the day allows reflection on the United States’ complicated history. It’s also a chance to set the record straight about Columbus and the pain Native Americans suffered, Lente said.

On Monday, he played emcee to the state’s first Indigenous Peoples Day celebration at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center, where dancers from Acoma Pueblo, the Navajo Nation, Mexico and Zuni Pueblo performed.

“We are still here. We are still resilient,” Lente said to a cheering crowd. “And we will be here forever.”

Crystal Zamora, 27, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, performs with the Ehecatl Aztec Dancers

A dancer with the Acoma Sky City Ram Dancers from Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico performs at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque, N.M. as part of New Mexico's first Indigenous Peoples Day

Dancers enter at the Gathering of Nations, one of the world’s largest gatherings of indigenous people in Albuquerque, New Mexico. A handful of states, including New Mexico and Maine, are celebrating their first Indigenous Peoples’ Day as part of a trend to move away from a day honoring Christopher Columbus.