AUTHOR: EMILY WOODYARD
Photo from Action Network
Do you ever check to see the interesting date(s) that have happened upon any particular day in history? If so, then you can relate to the google search bar having a theme to follow up almost every day that has a specific meaning. If you had checked Monday’s date, October 14th, you might have noticed Google did not recognize Columbus Day/ Indigenous People’s Day. Do students of this generation know and understand what today represents?
Well, several states have converted the original Holiday celebrating Columbus’s inaccurate discovery to a more fitting homegrown people’s perspective: commemorating the brave soles who tried their hardest to fight off European explorers such as Christopher Columbus.
Baley Champagne, started this sort of revolutionized idea in her home state Louisiana. She started on this idea to give respect where it is due and to take away the attention and glory given to the one man of genocide, and place the same grace into the arms of a whole culture (Indigenous People’s).
“When I was a kid I thought Columbus Day was awesome that he was awesome. He discovered America. But as I learned more about him the less I liked to celebrate him,” said FHSU student, Aiden Johnson. “He did terrible, horrible things to Native Americans. I think this is a day we should use to remember the hardships Native Americans had endured and still have to endure.”
The entrance of Victor E. Village displayed a whiteboard which read “Happy Indigenous People’s Day”. However not everyone has made the transition to celebrating a group rather than an individual. Most people who were interviewed had a neutral point of view, it did not affect them or any other people who surrounded their lives.
“As an increasing number of Americans have been questioning the place and purpose of Columbus Day. In a robust democracy like our own, it is their obligation and right to embrace this process of reconsideration and learning,” said Professor of Political Science, Dr. Larry Gould. “It is not about either political correctness or an unwillingness to accept change. It is about the opportunity American democracy affords all of us to continue to learn on the road to where our framers thought we might create a more perfect union.”
This is a very unbiased point of view on who we as citizens with our own opinions celebrate this incredible holiday. I enjoy this particular point of view because it allows for finding your own reason for celebration based on your personal findings as a person.
“I believe one of the strongest exemplifiers of a progressive nation is its ability, or its citizenry’s ability, to honestly examine elements of their culture and traditions and re-evaluate them, allowing for evolution,” said FHSU student, Draya Woolf-Wilson.
This allows for norms to form in society and express differences for those who do not conform; which in turn creates issues that are up for discussion.
“Whatever a person chooses to celebrate, through whatever purport they justify, is their prerogative. I, personally, celebrate my family heritage and ancestors by honoring indigenous people,” Woolf-Wilson said.
It is amazing to find out who you are as a citizen, what you believe or who you agree with.
“Those who question and defend Columbus Day are simply exercising their citizenship,” Gould said.