Ohio City Strikes Columbus Day From Its Calendar; New Holiday Is All About Indigenous People

In one Ohio city, Oct. 9 is no longer about the man who history has credited with discovering America. Instead, Oberlin residents now will honor the people that greeted Italian explorer Christopher Columbus way back in 1492.

City council members in the college town of Oberlin voted unanimously on Monday to enact Indigenous Peoples’ Day. It is the first city in Ohio to pass such a resolution to change the focus of the holiday to Native Americans and away from Columbus.

The city was approached in June by community members who sought the change, said city council member Sharon Pearson. She said a majority of residents she spoke with were in favor of the change. “This is what our community wanted and this is what we’re doing,” Pearson said. (To stay up to date on local stories, subscribe to the Patch Cleveland newsletter. As news breaks and the story develops, you will be the first to receive updates from Patch.)

Council chambers were packed for the meeting and the discussion prior to the vote lasted about an hour. Many of the people who attended the meeting were in favor of the change, Pearson said. However, not everyone liked the idea.

Oberlin resident Michael Palazzolo said the city did not give consideration for the meaning of Columbus Day to Italian Americans. He suggested that the city should have looked to designate a new holiday to honor Native Americans and keep Columbus Day as a day of pride for Italian Americans.

“What the city council did was to pit two ethnic groups against each other,” Palazzolo said. “They chose to take away a day that’s really important for Italian Americans.”

Other cities and states have changed the focus of the holiday. Currently, the city of Los Angeles is considering abolishing Columbus Day, and join such cities as Seattle, Minneapolis, Berkeley and Santa Cruz, along with five states, in replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.

Columbus Day, however, remains a federal holiday across the nation. "We, of course, cannot change a federal holiday," said Pearson, the Oberlin councilwoman.

-- City News Service/Public domain image via Wikipedia