14 February 2019 — 1138 mst
Opposition to Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not proof of racism
Growing up in northern Minnesota, where many Scandinavians settled, there was not, I learned, unanimous support for the proposition that Christopher Columbus discovered America. Some believed that distinction belonged to a Viking. Eric the Red and Leif Erickson were the names I recall as most frequently mentioned. Officially, of course, we celebrated Columbus Day, a tradition, according to the Smithsonian, dating back to 1792:
The first documented observance of Columbus Day in the United States took place in New York City in 1792, on the 300th anniversary of Columbus’s landfall in the Western Hemisphere. The holiday originated as an annual celebration of Italian–American heritage in San Francisco in 1869. In 1934, at the request of the Knights of Columbus and New York City’s Italian community, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared the first national observance of Columbus Day. President Roosevelt and the U.S. Congress made October 12 a national holiday in 1937. In 1972 President Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making the official date of the holiday the second Monday in October.
Now Columbus Day is falling into disfavor, partly because its existence validates a Eurocentric view of the discovery of America that some find offensive, and partly because the first humans to reach North America undoubtely came from Asia, transiting the Bering Sea across a land bridge or sea ice to what now is Alaska. To set the record straight, Columbus Day is being replaced or supplemented at local and state levels by Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Meanwhile, Columbus Day remains a federal holiday with a fair amount of support — and Indigenous Peoples’Day is not beloved by all.
In Montana, the creation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day is on its way to being approved by the state’s legislature. House Bill 219, sponsored by Rep. Shane Morigeau (D-Missoula, HD-95), changes the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, doubling the number of holidays celebrated on the second Monday in October. Yesterday, HB-219 was approved 62–38 on its second reading in the MT House. It’s a safe bet the bill will be approved on its third reading today.
Morigeau’s original bill did not tamper with Columbus Day. Instead, it created Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a new recognition, setting the date for its celebration as the day before Thanksgiving (a harvest festival). I would have set the celebration date as the day after Thanksgiving to provide a four-day holiday.
I have no objection to establishing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but I’m not keen on doing it by tampering with a federal holiday. I believe that all states should honor and celebrate all federal holidays, and not change the names of those holidays or double them up with contrarian state holidays. Tampering creates confusion, and strikes me as as assertion of states’ rights and nullification.
An aversion to nullification may account for some of the votes cast against HB-219. Other votes against it may represent an honest disagreement on the importance of Christopher Columbus’ explorations. Principled opposition to the bill is possible. Therefore it’s unfair to tar opponents of the bill as racists, a theme that’s popping up on social media. Contrary to what some progressives believe, racism is not found everywhere, and opposition to proposals by progressives is not proof of racism.