Gloamin’ holiday
Support dims for Columbus Day as calls grow to honor indigenous peoples instead
Columbus Day’s days could be numbered as support grows for replacing the holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day.
“Massachusetts should lead by recognizing that Columbus Day promotes a troubling racial history, and instead we should show our support for Indigenous neighbors by declaring this holiday,” said Brandy Fluker Oakley, D-Mattapan, who introduced the House version of the bill to make the swap.
Indigenous groups, social justice organizations and some Italian Americans testified in support of the change during a Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight hearing Tuesday, citing what they say are Christopher Columbus’s harmful contributions to American history.
“Columbus was and is a terrorist — he terrorized people,” said Faries Gray, Sagamore of the Massachusett Tribe. “With the internet and all this information so easily accessible, we all should know exactly what Columbus did for the Indigenous people of all the Americas.”
Mahtowin Munro, Lakota, who testified on behalf of United American Indians of New England and the statewide Indigenous Peoples Day Campaign, also noted the more positive aspects of recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day. “It changes the conversation from Columbus to Indigenous history, and even more important, a celebration of our resilience and continuing presence on our own lands,” she said.
The holiday is already observed in cities and towns including Nantucket, Marblehead, Somerville, Easthampton, Cambridge and Newburyport, and nine states.
Some Italian Americans also support the change. Although Heather Lavelle, cofounder of Italian Americans for Indigenous Peoples Day, acknowledged the discrimination Italian Americans faced, “things are much different for us today, and our culture is celebrated,” she said. She called Italian Americans “not unique” in their experience as immigrants to the U.S.
Other Italian American groups remain opposed. Even though November is recognized as American Indian Heritage Month, “for some reason or other, they want to infringe upon the one day that the Italians have,” said James DiStefano, president of Mass.-based Italian American Alliance.
Diane Modica, chair of the Social Justice Commission of the state branch of the Sons and Daughters of Italy, said her group wasn’t given enough advance notice to testify on the matter.
She added that “Italian Americans have no fight with Indigenous peoples,” and acknowledged their painful history, “but we don’t see taking away the hardearned celebration of one ethnic group and replacing it with their own is right, either,” she said.
The bill is unlikely to become law in time for the holiday on Oct.11 because it still needs to go through multiple levels of approval, including a sign-off from Gov. Charlie Baker.