The city of Salem in Massachusets, United States, changed last Wednesday the holiday of Christopher Columbus Day for the Day of the Indigenous People.
The resolution, passed by just one vote of difference, justified the change as a measure of recognition to the native inhabitants of Salem, which was called Naumkeag "for millennia before the arrival of Europeans in 1626", according to the document voted.
Norristown, in Pennsylvania;
Houston, in Texas;
and the states of Virginia and Arizona have joined other regions of the country this year in declaring the second Monday in October as the official day to celebrate the indigenous legacy that survived colonization.
This despite the fact that Christopher Columbus Day is a federal holiday in the United States.
On this non-business day, the American population is invited to learn about Native history.
While in Spain the national holiday is celebrated with acts where the flag is the protagonist and in Mexico the controversy returns to haunt the speeches of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has demanded an apology from Madrid for the conquest, the original peoples of the United States propose a different plan.
The National Museum of the American Indians recommends reading native authors, recognizing the original people of each state, teaching the origins of civilizations in schools, and participating in commemorative events that take place throughout the country.
Some political figures, such as the Democratic representative of New Mexico, Deb Haalam, have joined the fervent campaign on social media to vindicate this day with
online
events
.
Haalam has published a photo of him as a young man next to a truck painted with the words "Columbus was lost" to promote the event in which he will celebrate the indigenous legacy with performances, prayers and speeches by some of the main leaders of New Mexico.
Sharice Davids, the first indigenous woman in Congress, recalls that this day is to celebrate the contribution of the original peoples of the United States and its history with the arrival of the colonizers.
"We recognize the persecution and discrimination that our peoples have faced for centuries in our ancestral lands," he has written on his social networks.
By dedicating this day to the strength and resilience of Indigenous peoples, we condemn those who have tried to erase us, and build strength through understanding.
#IndigenousPeoplesDay pic.twitter.com/gDPN5P9LWf
- Rep. Deb Haaland (@RepDebHaaland) October 12, 2020
The cultural interpreter at the National Museum of the American Indian, Gem Labarta of the Navajo people, explains that vindicating the natives on Columbus Day is an upward trend in recent years.
"We are seeing a change as more people participate, as more people understand indigenous peoples as nations," he says.
For Labarta, the United States is producing a desire for change in the narrative about Christopher Columbus.
“I grew up learning about Columbus with rhymes about how he plowed through the blue ocean with his boats.
But they never taught us the other story.
Christopher Columbus arrived here, where there were already indigenous communities with their own government and their own language, ”he reports.
Labarta, who takes advantage of this day to celebrate it with his family, acknowledges that many states have not yet recognized the Day of the Indigenous People, regardless of whether they are under a Democratic or Republican government.
"It has less to do with politics and more to do with the will to change, to hear the truth about our country, which was not discovered by a single person and that the history of contact with the colonizers was a violent history," he details.
Labarta acknowledges that Americans are uncomfortable thinking about that historic moment “because we want to think of ourselves as the land of the free and the home of the brave.
But that is not always true and having to accept the violent history of this nation is something that makes them completely rethink their understanding of what our country is, "he says.
