Columbus Day Or Indigenous Peoples Day: What Newton Celebrates

NEWTON, MA — Columbus Day, the second Monday of October, is recognized as a federal holiday honoring Italian Americans. But a growing number of cities and town across the country are marking the day as Indigenous Peoples Day, a day that recognizes Native Americans instead.

The question came before the Newton City Council, but despite a committee recommendation they make the change, the council decided it still wanted to hear from more residents in the form of a public hearing that will be held some time in the weeks ahead.

In the meantime in Newton, Monday is Columbus Day.

Here's what's open and what's closed:

• Municipal, state, federal offices: Closed.
• Schools: Closed.
• Libraries: Closed.
• Banks: Closed.
• Mail: Post offices closed; express delivery only.
• Supermarkets: Open.
• Convenience stores: Open.
• Retail stores: Open at owner's discretion.
• Restaurants, bars: Open at owner's discretion.
• Package stores: Open at owner's discretion.
• Trash, recycling: Delayed one day.

The holiday in 2020 comes as the decades-long debate and controversy over Native American sports team names continues. Earlier this year, the NFL team in Washington, D.C., dropped their Redskins nickname and are now simply called the Washington Football Team. The Cleveland Indians are also considering changing their name for the first time since 1915, according to reports.

Columbus Day celebrations date back to the 18th century in some places, according to the History Channel, but did not become a federal holiday for celebration on the second Monday of October until 1971. The day continues to be listed by the federal government as Columbus Day.

Indigenous Peoples Day — seen by its promoters as a day of reckoning for centuries of systemic bias against native populations — is a more recent phenomenon.

South Dakota was the first state to recognize “Native Americans Day” in 1990, and the city of Berkeley, California, declared the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples Day in 1992. Hundreds of municipalities have followed during the past decade.

But it's complicated.

Italian Americans who came to the United States from the late 1800s through the early 1900s were subject to vicious bigotry, discriminated against and treated violently, even lynched, for decades. Putting an Italian face on the hero of America's origin story gave them a real sense of cultural pride and a stake on being an American. Congress curtailed Italian immigration on racial grounds in the 1920s, even though Italians were legally white. In 1965, Italian-Americans campaigned to overturn racist restrictions using the Columbus icon to their advantage.

For many, especially those who are old enough to remember discrimination, that's what's at heart here.

"It's a hard sell to the Italian Community," said Waltham resident Corrie Popp a cofounder of the Italian Americans for Indigenous People's Day, which supported a push to remove a monument to Columbus in Boston's North End last year.

Popp, who is in her 40s and is a teacher in Newton, told Patch earlier she knows that this holiday has been important to normalizing the Italian community, but it's time for an adjustment.

"Can we decouple our awesomeness as Italian Americans with our association with Columbus?" she said.

Popp told Patch earlier that moves to remove monuments or change the holiday from Columbus to Indigenous People's Day is not so much about canceling Columbus, or the Italian Americans who are an important part of the country, but about being respectful to all people.

"Let's just not honor these people in public places where they make other people feel oppressed. It's not like you have to erase them," she said.

She represents a recent uptick in Italian Americans joining forces nationally to work together to convince people that this isn't the worst thing.

Many argue Columbus isn't fit to represent any Americans, let alone Italians, pointing out that although most historians agree Columbus was born in Genoa, what is modern day Italy, there was no country of Italy during his lifetime.

And, although he sailed to the Americas several times in his lifetime, Columbus only made it to the Caribbean, where historians said he ordered the slavery and deaths of countless indigenous people.
United American Indians of New England, an area organization, supports bringing down public memorials to Columbus, for that reason.

"This issue should not be presented as 'Indigenous versus Italians,' Mahtowin Munro of United American Indians of New England told Patch. "People of Italian ancestry have a lot of amazing things to be proud of in their history, culture, and people. Columbus, however, should not be a point of pride for anyone."

Munro likened the issue to that of white people in the South clinging to the confederate flag and memorials despite the longstanding demands of Black people to remove those symbols of hate.
"There are some people here who refuse to listen to Indigenous voices and the truth about Columbus," Munro said. "There should be a bedrock social understanding ... that it is wrong and harmful to celebrate people who perpetrated genocide."

As of 2019, at least eight states, 10 universities and more than 130 cities observe Indigenous Peoples Day, according to a USA Today report. Several states, such as Louisiana and Wisconsin, made the change just last year.

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