On March 2, 2021, the people of Wellesley will be asked to approve a motion that the Select Board cease to recognize Columbus Day and re-designate the day as Indigenous People’s Day. This proposal is both misleading and historically in error as well as unnecessary.
The Columbus Day holiday is tied to Italian-Americans and Italian immigration. By the time Columbus Day became an official holiday in 1968 it was quite clear that Columbus had not “discovered” the Americas and that the Norse were here 500 years before Columbus. Moreover, in his four voyages to the Americas, Columbus never set foot on the land that was to become the US.
Columbus represented both pride in Italian ancestry as well as pride in the contribution of Italian-Americans to the US. In fact, the first “Columbus Day” holiday was declared by President Benjamin Harrison in 1892 in response to the lynching of 11 Italian immigrants in New Orleans. At that time the holiday focused on citizenship and nationhood with dual intent;
first, to give Italian-Americans pride in being US citizens and, second, to reinforce among existing citizens the contribution of Italian-Americans to the US nation.
Columbus Day is not the only day of ethnic celebration in the US. St Patrick’s Day has been celebrated in the US since 1601 and is marked with festivities in cities like Boston and New York that have large Irish-American communities. More recently, Cinco de Mayo and Hispanic culture have been celebrated.
October 12 is the date of the holiday because this is the day that Columbus’s fleet sighted the Americas. The date marks an historic event.
The motion seeks to change the designation of this day to Indigenous Peoples Day. Yet, by a national law from 2009, the day after Thanksgiving is designated “Native American Heritage Day”, clearly intended to serve the purpose as Indigenous Peoples Day. Moreover, since 1994, the entire month of November has been designated by Presidential Proclamation as “Native American Heritage Month”, in the same way that February is designated “Black History Month”.
Since there already is a day and month for the celebration of native Americans and indigenous peoples the motive for this proposal is something quite different from celebration. Rather, the purpose here is quite the opposite for in the view of the proposal’s supporters and as the proposal reads this day marks the start of the “…suffering [Indigenous Peoples] faced during and after the European conquest…”
As a mailer from the proponents of the proposal elaborates: “Columbus brought a culture of domination, exploitation, violence, and greed that resulted in genocide, oppression, and destruction of Indigenous cultures and ecosystems.”
In other words, this proposal demands that as a descendant of European immigrants or for that matter any immigrant you acknowledge on this day your guilt in and responsibility for all the depredations and horrors suffered by Indigenous Peoples as a result of the European discovery of and immigration to the Americas.
None of this is to say that what befell the Indigenous Peoples from European exploration and American expansion was not horrific. Our history, indeed, history generally, has no shortage of ugly events. The consequences, intended and unintended, of the migration of peoples and globalization are often both unexpected and detrimental. If we are to make the US a better nation and to realize the aspirations of our founding, it is beholden upon all citizens to understand our history both good and bad.
But this proposal does not seek to make us better. Instead it asserts that there is an irredeemable flaw in us and in the US that can never be made good. Columbus and the Europeans came; we cannot undo this history. We should understand and celebrate Native American culture just as we celebrate that of immigrants. We should recognize that we are stronger and culturally richer for our diversity. Defining the US as irredeemably flawed by immigration does not bring greater understanding it only demeans most citizens. I ask that you join in rejecting this proposal.
Sincerely yours,
Stephen Maire
Denton Road
I will make the argument to stop celebrating Columbus day without going into whether or not he committed all of the atrocities he is accused of and primary source documents suggest he did. I’ll leave that alone for a moment. In fact, let’s say he did nothing wrong for this argument:
Columbus was paid to explore. He did his job. It is not a historically significant event that he found an inhabited body of land. Had he not, scores of others looking for prosperity through trading would have followed until it was found. If it is insisted to shine a bright light on this particular flavor of whiteness, so be it. We can call a day “Italian-American Pride Day”. There is simply no good reason to celebrate a paid explorer finding land while he was lost whether he be a saint or a sinner outside of his trade.
You essentially make an argument that adding Indigenous People’s Day would pay too much attention to this group. I take issue with that concept. I also would say that yes, what was done to indigenous people is irredeemable, and no, it can never be made good. If I need to take a day, a month and a day, or a month and two days to remember that, I am fine with it and should do so.
I hope we can be better and do better. I do not see how leaving this alone accomplishes that. We can dig in and wait for the Commonwealth to take action – and it will, eventually – or we can be forward-thinking and progressive like some of our good neighbors. Wellesley leads in so many ways – this can and should be one of them.
I agree with a number of the points that you make.
To call the October holiday “Italian American Heritage Day” or “i
Immigration Heritage Day” would make a lot of sense and would be consistent with the reasoning behind the founding of the holiday.
Since we hear so little about Native American Heritage Day on the day after Thanksgiving or Native American Heritage Month in November it is clear that leadership is needed raise the profile of these. One can certainly contrast the high profile that this month as Black History Month has and see how much more is needed to celebrate Native American heritage.
Wellesley can and should lead in a way the is inclusive, not divisive. We should lead to give all citizens an understanding of our history rather than denigrating immigration.
100% in agreement!
absolutely true , please vote NO on this proposal
Many of us would be in favor of a holiday to celebrate Italian Americans. We have the opportunity TODAY to look back and determine whether celebrating Columbus and what he did is truly reflective of the America we want to be today and in the future. Breaking ties with “Columbus” should not be reflective of the desire to celebrate all cultures, or Italians, in particular.
Interestingly, the author states: “In other words, this proposal demands that as a descendant of European immigrants or for that matter any immigrant you acknowledge on this day your guilt in and responsibility for all the depredations and horrors suffered by Indigenous Peoples as a result of the European discovery of and immigration to the Americas.”
Celebrating Indigenous people is not meant to bring guilt; indeed, if guilt is what you feel, then you should examine yourself and the source of this guilt. As someone who is a mestiza, I celebrate who I am today: an amalgam of Indigenous, African, and European descent. If not for the colonization and subsequent immigration to the Americas, I would not be here. My family moved to the US when I was a little girl and here I met my husband, a son of Chinese immigrants. I can’t think of something more courageous than all the people who traveled to the Americas in search of a better life for their family. But that does not mean we forget the atrocities that happened to those who were here first.
Like I tell my children, you can be (and feel) more than one thing. You can have pride for your heritage and also acknowledge when others have been wrong. You can be a proud Italian-American and also acknowledge that a holiday named after Columbus is not what you want to impart on future generations.
Celebrating Indigenous People Day instead of Columbus Day allows us to have these critical conversations with our family and friends. Otherwise…we just keep repeating the same mistakes.
(I would also like to add that Cinco de Mayo is more American than “Hispanic”. This day commemorates a Mexican victory against the French. While intentional or not, writing “Cinco de Mayo and Hispanic Culture” side by side is indicative of lack of understanding of the wide variety that encompasses Hispanics and Latinx people.)
Unite Wellesley (UW) would be open to changing the name of the second Monday in October to Italian American Heritage Day, since this preserves the original intent of this holiday, which is to honor Italian Americans and, by association, all immigrants to our country. Italian Americans do not want to lose their special holiday.
UW supports celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day on the Friday after Thanksgiving, which Native American Heritage Day, the civil holiday signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2009. I would love to see this day become the federal holiday that Indigenous People deserve. The conversations you suggest are important ones and could take place during the month of November, which is National Native American Heritage Month.
Let’s focus on Indigenous Peoples by honoring them on the day and during the month that President Obama and Congress established for them.
Learn more at our website: http://www.UnitedWellesley.com
I would like to honour Native American over all other nations who didn’t even arrive here till ….
Its new age and new times and we no longer want to associate with the past that brings so much shame and embarrassment. It’s time to embrace true origins of people and land that was initially here way before religious white English and everyone with it came to seek for their greed and so called freedom for the price of genocide.