Columbus Day started as a holiday to celebrate Italian immigrants persecuted in the United States, but for many, it is now a symbol of colonization and oppression of indigenous peoples. BY ERIN BLAKEMORE
Was Christopher Columbus a heroic explorer or an evil murderer? It depends on who you're asking. Debates about how the United States should commemorate the Italian navigator's 1492 landing in the Americas, and whether it should commemorate it, have been debated for generations.
The second Monday of October is a federal holiday, and Columbus Day originated from a campaign to honor Italian-American traditions in the late 19th century, when Italian immigrants faced widespread persecution.
However, the holiday was later attacked for celebrating the arrival of a man who heralded the oppression of another group of people: the Indians. In recent decades, indigenous peoples' days have replaced this holiday in many states and cities.
In 2021, the United States will celebrate the first National Indigenous Peoples Day on Oct. 11, a day that President Joe Biden declared to honor "the indigenous peoples whose diverse history and contributed to shaping this nation." Biden also issued the Columbus Day Proclamation acknowledging the contributions of Italian-Americans and the "painful history of mistakes and atrocities" that came with European expeditions. Here's how Columbus Day began and how the movement to replace it gained momentum.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="22" > early Columbus Day celebrations</h1>
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus's crew discovered the New World after a 10-week voyage. The three ships of the Italian navigator, sailing on the orders of the King of Spain, would soon make landfall, most likely on an island known to the inhabitants of Lucaya as Guanahani. Columbus named it San Salvador.
It was the beginning of a new era in The History of the Western Hemisphere — an event that has been commemorated by Americans since the founding of the United States in 1776. But until the end of the 19th century, celebrations were largely confined to Catholic and Italian-American settlements on the East Coast, where many saw Columbus as a brave and fearless explorer who demonstrated progress and courage. For these people, Columbus represented their indelible contribution to a society that was skeptical of both Catholics and Italian-Americans.
As Italian immigrants went from trickle to torrent, the celebration of Columbus was huge. Beginning in the 1880s, Italian immigrants began to pour into the United States in search of opportunities and a better life. But not everyone welcomes these newcomers. Italian immigrants, vilified as evil and criminal, have become the focus of increasing prejudice.
Anti-Italian sentiment erupted in New Orleans in 1890 after the murder of New Orleans Police Chief David Henness, known for his arrest of Italian-Americans. Subsequently, more than a hundred Sicilian Americans were arrested. When nine of them were acquitted in March 1891, an angry mob rioted and broke into the city prison, beating, shooting, and hanging at least 11 Italian-American prisoners. None of the mobs that lynched Italian-Americans were indicted. It remains one of the largest mass lynchings in U.S. history.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="34" > from international events to national holidays</h1>
The brutal killings created tit-for-tat tensions between the United States and Italy, which demanded compensation for the murders. At first, the United States refused, prompting Italy to recall the ambassador and sever diplomatic relations. The United States reciprocated.
But ultimately, to appease Italy and acknowledge the contribution of Italian-Americans on the 400th anniversary of Columbus's arrival, President Benjamin Harrison declared a national celebration of Discovery Day in 1892, acknowledging Columbus as a "pioneer of progress and enlightenment." Eventually, the two countries repaired their relationship, and the United States paid $25,000 in reparations.
In the decades following the mass lynching, Supporters of Italian-Americans promoted a national holiday, and states slowly began to adopt it. In 1934, President Franklin D. Roosevelt designated the day as a national holiday. In 1971, Congress changed the day from October 12 to the second Monday of October. Historians write, "Let Italian-Americans celebrate while celebrating their Italian identity, the identity of the Italian-American community, and their loyalty to the United States." ”
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="35" > Promote Indigenous Peoples' Day</h1>
Italians celebrate Columbus Day. But for many people of Indigenous ancestry, it was a slap in the face — a celebration of aggression, theft, barbarism and colonization. Columbus and his crew condoned and perpetrated the abduction, enslavement, forced assimilation, rape and sexual abuse of indigenous peoples, including children; The Native American population has decreased by about half after contact with Europeans. For Native Americans, some celebrated the landings as a triumphant discovery day, the beginning of an invasion of their longtime homeland.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the Pan-Indian and Red Forces movements brought Indians together, and they began to draw attention to the hero's dirty history. In 1970, for example, ahead of the Columbus Day celebrations, anonymous protesters scribbled the slogan of Red Power on a statue of a navigator in the center of New York's Columbus Circle. The New Yorker reported on the incident, calling it "a safe joke" by white politicians on the viewing stage of the day's celebration. This shows how far the movement needs to go to change the nation's perception of Columbus.
In the 1980s and 1990s, protests against the festival increased. In 1990, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the "Knee Massacre" in which American soldiers killed about 300 Lakotas, American Indian publisher Tim Giago urged the governor of South Dakota to declare it a year of reconciliation and change Columbus Day to Indian Day. Governor George S. Mickelson agreed, and since then, the holiday has replaced the state's Columbus Day.
Two years later, on the eve of the 500th anniversary of Columbus' landings, indigenous groups lobbied the United Nations and local governments not to participate in international celebrations. In response to this plan, the San Francisco Bay Area formed a group called Resistance 500, such as an event in which a replica of Columbus sailed into the port of San Francisco. The Berkeley City Council recognized the organization as a task force and unanimously adopted its recommendation to replace Columbus Day with a holiday called "Day of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples." As a result of increasing pressure, the boats' journeys were cancelled and Indigenous activists won another victory.
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Despite the Italian-American group's protests against the move, it has provoked continued activism among indigenous peoples. In the 2010s, Aboriginal Day — known by some as Indian Day — gained support because many cities across the country adopted the holiday. Now, it's a paid state holiday in Alaska, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon (celebrating Columbus Day and Indian Day), South Dakota, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
For many, Thanksgiving is another holiday that attempts to whitewash the country's colonial past. Each year, a group of people gather at Alcatraz island to participate in the Indigenous sunrise ceremony, or non-Thanksgiving.
In addition, several states have stopped celebrating Columbus Day altogether. According to the Pew Research Center, only 21 states offer paid leave to government workers on the second Monday in October.
Even columbus, Ohio, the largest city named after the Italian navigator, has changed its attitude: In 2018, the city stopped celebrating Columbus Day and in 2020 declared October 12 as Indigenous Peoples' Day. Columbus City Council President Shannon Harding reportedly said at the meeting: "It is impossible to imagine a more just future without acknowledging these original sins we have committed in the past."
In April 2019, New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell, in a similar spirit of reckoning, apologized for the lynching of Italian-Americans in 1891, which occurred more than a century later. "Some people don't want me to apologize today," Cantrell said at the time. "But... It is my responsibility to deal with the issues before me and to speak honestly about the challenges we face that have shaped our history and, more importantly, our future. ”