Honoring Indigenous Peoples' Day
SGO Co-Founder and Head of DEI, Felicia Jadczak , wrote the following article.
Today, Monday October 10, 2022, is Indigenous Peoples' Day in the United States. Well, that's not entirely true– some states, cities, and individuals will recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day, but others will still mark today as Columbus Day. If you're unfamiliar with why there are two names for the same day or the reason behind a shift in naming, let's explore the history behind this change.
The first celebration of Columbus Day occurred in 1792, on the 300th anniversary of Columbus's landing in the Americas. Various communities began celebrating as a way to highlight Italian-American heritage and Catholic pride. Since 1937, Columbus Day has been observed as a federal government holiday on every second Monday of October. When I was growing up, I didn't think much about this day except that it was a day off from school (and later, work), and it gave me a chance to recite the schoolyard poem that starts with these lines: "In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." I never thought too much about the implications of this 'discovery of America.'?
As I grew older, I began to learn more about the history of the United States and realized that this discovery wasn't benign and friendly. This event not only marks one of the beginnings of colonization here, but it is also heralded in violence, disease, genocide, warfare, slavery, torture, and oppression. I also realized that Columbus himself was not a heroic figure as he'd been built up to be, but rather a brutal individual who was directly responsible for enslaving Native peoples, torturing them, and committing acts of violence and murder.?
The shift to move away from naming this day after Columbus is not a recent one. Discussion around this move first began at a U.N. international conference on discrimination in 1977. The conference was titled 'Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas,' and came at a time when Native Americans in the US were facing massive discrimination and loss of reservation land, federal protections, and services. Native activists wanted the right to decolonize. However, the U.N. viewed this as a domestic concern and declined to get involved. So, various activist groups from Canada and the US worked together to lobby the U.N. as an NGO, focusing on indigenous human rights instead. The conference was a result of these lobbying efforts. One of the outcomes was the idea to rename Columbus Day.?
South Dakota was the first state to recognize this day in 1989. Today, some states recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day, and in other states, the decision is left up to individual cities. According to National Today: "Today, 14 U.S. states celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day and not Columbus Day, as well as the District of Columbia. More than 130 cities, including Arlington, Amherst, Cambridge, Brookline, Marblehead, Great Barrington, Northampton, Provincetown, Somerville, and Salem, also celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day." Last year, 2021, was the first time a U.S. president had ever officially recognized Indigenous Peoples' Day in a presidential proclamation– a huge move, but also long overdue.?
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This move has not come without controversy, however. Many individuals and states view this as an attack on Italian-American heritage. Columbus as a figure was latched on to as a way to highlight acceptance for many Italian and Irish immigrants, who were looking to assimilate into their new country. In the 1800s, there was a wave of anti-Italian discrimination (Italians and Irish alike were not always seen as 'white'), and many saw Columbus as a figurehead who was both American and Italian, thus offering them a path to nationalist legitimacy. Resistance to letting go of Columbus Day has many root causes: not wanting to lose a day celebrating Italian heritage, denial of Columbus's true nature and legacy, a desire to gloss over the not-so-savory aspects of our history, and for some– a simple inherent dislike of change.?
The reality is that Columbus did not 'discover America.' These shores were home to numerous tribes for thousands of years, long before he landed here. Today there are 574 tribal nations and more than 500 million Indigenous peoples across the Americas. Recognizing Native tribes and their original lands, along with the true history of how our current structures and government ended up in place, is a powerful and important way to show respect, acknowledge our painful history, and address how to move forward toward justice. It's a way for us as a society to move away from celebrating genocide, torture, colonization, and oppression and instead lift up Indigenous identity and history.?
Here at SGO, several years ago, we made the decision to start recognizing Indigenous Peoples' Day. As such, we use this day off to honor the culture and history of Indigenous peoples and reflect on our history and place on this land. We've updated our internal documentation to reflect this name change as well– it's represented in our employee handbook, offer letter, payroll and benefits software, and more. Naming is important, and this is another way that we lean into our past, as opposed to covering it up (this is something we also do by practicing land acknowledgments and donating to Indigenous organizations).?
At this point, you might be reflecting on how you might want to honor Indigenous Peoples' Day this year, whether or not your organization, town, or state does so. Here are eight tips on how to do so at work and on a personal level:
If you have additional ideas, we'd love to learn! We always encourage feedback, so please send it our way.