Today Is Indigenous Peoples’ Day In Spokane
@RichardMeister (5328)
Otis Orchards, Washington
October 10, 2016 1:01pm CST
A couple of months ago the Spokane City Council voted to make Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the city of Spokane.
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good idea to have a Indigenous Peoples’ Day but using an already established holiday for it is not the way to go–at least in my mind.
To me, that’s like turning Thanksgiving Day into Overweight Peoples’ Day claiming people eat too much on Thanksgiving Day so the name needs to be changed.
It’s like changing Christmas Day to Save A Tree Day claiming people need not to have a Christmas tree.
What I’m saying is if we are to have Indigenous Peoples’ Day we need to choose a day that isn’t already an established holiday. Granted, about the only people who don’t work on Columbus Day are government workers and bankers, but that shouldn’t influence the need to change it.
I suppose using an already established holiday may bring more attention to it, but I still don’t think it should be done. When the holidays that we do have were established we didn’t take an already established holiday and change the meaning of the holiday to suit our fancy.
Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day and was established to put flowers on the graves of solders. Changing it to Memorial Day simply just changed the name and brought more people to the cemetery to put flowers on their loved ones’ graves.
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln’s birthday were combined to create President’s Day (which is still legally called George Washington’s Birthday) but the name change did not change the meaning of the day. It’s still a day to celebrate the President’s birthday.
So why do we need to take an already established holiday and change the name and meaning of the holiday? When Father’s Day and Mother’s Day were established our forefathers didn’t say, “Okay, let’s turn Veteran’s Day into Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day into Mother’s Day.” They chose the second Sunday in May for Mother’s Day and the third Sunday in June for Father’s Day.
I’m saying there should be an Indigenous Peoples’ Day, just not on an already established holiday.
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3 responses
@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
13 Oct 16
It is because to celebrate Columbus day and his "discovery" of America is thought to celebrate the exploitation of the native peoples who lived there already. I think the new name is preferable.
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@JamesHxstatic (29410)
• Eugene, Oregon
14 Oct 16
@RichardMeister With Columbus and the disease ridden people who followed him, it was deploreable.
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@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
14 Oct 16
@JamesHxstatic The people who followed the Pilgrims were disease ridden, too, so let's do away with Thanksgiving and Independence Day.
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@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
14 Oct 16
Maybe we should rename all our holidays or do away with all of them so no one is offended. As one lady said to me, "There's a big push going on right now to make everything in the past sound horrible. To make all the people of the past sound deplorable."
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@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
10 Oct 16
I didn't even know (so perhaps it hasn't happened here yet). I just quickly read one article about what this was about. So apparently people are saying it's to change our way of thinking about Columbus and his so-called discovery of America. People were already here, so it's not like he "discovered" anything. They say he actually made the indigenous people suffer, so it wasn't right to "celebrate" a day for Mr. Columbus.
Ok, I can understand that point. I had often thought that. Out here we don't really do much for Columbus Day anyway - not even schools have it off. I suppose Indigenous People's Day would bring more awareness about history's truth.
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@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
11 Oct 16
I didn't read up on it, but the news did say something about that. So now we want to say Columbus never sailed the ocean and the way America was found was by people thumbing their way across the ocean? Almost everyone who came to America caused hardship for the Indigenous people but we're going to blame all of it on Columbus? In actuality, Columbus should not be blamed for anything that happened in America because he did not land in America. I don't remember the name of the island but he landed on a island down in the region east of Cuba. That's a bit of history a lot of people don't know. The thing Columbus did was prove the earth wasn't flat (which was what he set out to do)–that ships were not going to sail off the edge of the earth. He thought he could sail straight around the earth so when he spotted land he thought it was India. That how the Native Americans became known as Indians. Okay, enough of the history lesson which you probably already knew.
Columbus Day isn't really celebrated up here either. No school closures. However, they claim in Spokane there was more celebration this year than in the past several years on Columbus Day since they changed it to Indigenous Peoples' Day.
I imagine in a few years Columbus will be all but forgotten. It will be politically incorrect to even mention his name. Columbus, Ohio will have to change it's name and so will any other cities, towns and counties that is named Columbus. All mentions of Columbus will have to be removed from history books. If your kids say the word, Columbus, they will have their mouths washed out with soap because it will be a nasty word. Everyone will shun any adult that uses the word. Anyone whose surname is Columbus will have to have their name changed. Ah, Columbus!
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@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
11 Oct 16
@RichardMeister I guess they are saying why give a person a day of his own when he is the one who helped to open up the slave trade . . . he brought rape, murder and all kinds of violence to the people who were already here - wherever he landed. And that's a bit of history a lot of people don't know either. If it didn't happen in America, then really there is no need to celebrate him at all here - although he did of course have a part in our history (they're not trying to say it didn't happen . . . they're just saying that it wasn't a good part in history as we have been led to believe all these years.
That being said, I know, sometimes these PC things just get overblown.
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@RichardMeister (5328)
• Otis Orchards, Washington
12 Oct 16
@much2say The thing is, he did not go searching for new land. He sailed to prove the world was round. His whole intention was to sail around the world–not to bring rape, murder and all kinds of violence to a new land. You are right about one thing–I've always wondered why we celebrate Columbus Day when he didn't even land in America (I understand he never set foot on what is now America). I guess just finding land that the Europeans didn't know about or finding someone could sail to a new land qualifies his voyage to be celebrated. If Columbus wouldn't have found the new land someone else would have.
I wonder how long it will be before Thanksgiving Day will be under attack because if it wasn't for the Pilgrims there would have been no rape, murder and all kinds of violence. (I really don't know that you could blame the rape, murder and all kinds of violence on anyone who came to America when the Native Americans were attacking each other's tribes and taking women and children and horses and scalping and killing braves long before any outsiders ever came to America. I guess if they do it to themselves it's not such a big deal.)
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