Columbus Day Name Change? Minneapolis Begins Shift To More Appropriate Indigenous People’s Day

Minneapolis will stop celebrating Columbus Day this year in favor of Indigenous People's Day, as the City Council voted unanimously on Friday morning. The change brought many to gather at City Hall to commemorate the resolution that Native Americans had been fighting for many years. “It’s been a long time coming," said Clyde Bellecourt, a civil rights organizer. "For me, it’s been almost 50 years that we’ve been talking about this pirate." Notes on the resolution state that the federal government, state government and city government will still recognize Columbus Day, but the new holiday will be reflected on city messaging, Casey Carl, city clerk, revealed. The city is not renaming Columbus Day, but recognizing Indigenous People's Day on the same day, which will be the second Monday in October.

Indigenous People's Day is not something new and it has been observed by many cities in the U.S. as a counter-celebration to Columbus Day. The holiday began in Berkley, California and Denver, Colorado since 1992. The controversy over what Christopher Columbus represents in the history of Native Americans was what inspired this movement and this day is now used to commemorate their culture. California cities like Sebastopo and Santa Cruz also observed the holiday and states like Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and South Dakota do not celebrate it at all. The latter replaced Columbus Day with Native American Day. Hawaii celebrates Discoverers' Day which celebrates the Polynesian discoverers of the islands.

"I see this as a very small piece of the much larger healing that has to happen in our country so that we can be whole again," said Council Member Cam Gordon. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison said he was planning on making similar efforts at the state and federal level before the voting today. "I hadn't thought of it until a young man just said 'What about doing [this] on the federal level?" Ellison said in an interview Friday. "I said that's an idea. So we're going to be thinking about it now." The United Nations declared International Day Of The World's Indigenous People in 1994 that is celebrated every year on August 9.