Columbus Day debate continues in Massachusetts

More than 300 cities and towns across Massachusetts will be recognizing Columbus Day on Monday, while around two dozen will be celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day.

But Indigenous people and their allies say the divide between what towns and cities formally recognize on the second Monday of October should not exist. They are behind a push at the State House to establish it as Indigenous Peoples Day, doing away with Columbus Day.

Opponents, on the other hand, say Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer, is worthy of a holiday because they believe he represents a part of Italian heritage.

An Indigenous Peoples Day bill, pending in the state Legislature for the third straight session, would recommend residents observe the day with “appropriate exercises in the schools and otherwise, to acknowledge the history of genocide and discrimination against Indigenous peoples, and to recognize and celebrate the thriving cultures and continued resistance and resilience of Indigenous peoples and their tribal nations.”

State Rep. Jeffrey Turco, D-19th Suffolk, voiced frustration over the bill during a hearing last week. He said the “unfortunate approach” looks to divide Native Americans against Italian Americans, adding there should be legislation to help tribes reclaim their land.

“This bill basically disregards the contributions of Italian American people,” Turco said.

Not all Italian Americans side with Turco and other opponents, however.

Danielle DeLuca co-founded Italian Americans for Indigenous Peoples Day in 2016, and since, she’s been calling on cities and towns to do away with Columbus Day and honor other Italian Americans “who have done wonderful things for this country.”

“We believe that Indigenous Peoples Day should be its own holiday. It should not stand alongside Columbus Day. It should not stand alongside Italian heritage day,” DeLuca said Saturday at a rally on Boston Common. “We cannot celebrate Italian Americans on a day that is honoring Columbus. You just cannot celebrate a perpetrator of genocide and victims of genocide on the same day.”

Gov. Maura Healey approves the change, with the governor and her staff referring to the holiday as Indigenous Peoples Day internally. But Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano have not made any public stances on the bill, which has been approved out of committee the past two sessions but has failed to make it to the floor.

Mayor Michell Wu, meanwhile, on Sunday, joined the community in the North End where there was a parade and celebration of Italian heritage.

Jean-Luc Pierite, president of North American Center of Boston, organized Saturday’s rally  and march, starting at the Common, stopping on the steps of the State House before finishing at Faneuil Hall, a building which supporters say is also in need of a name change.

Pierite said he is hopeful the Indigenous Peoples Day bill will be fully approved this session as well as other pieces in the Indigenous legislative agenda.

Their requests include banning Native American mascots in schools, having Native American history and culture in public school curriculum, creating an education commission relative to educational attainment rates for American Indians and Alaskan Natives, and protecting Native American heritage by ensuring sacred objects don’t go to auction houses.

“It is a show of not just pushing for the day itself,” Pierite said of the significance of holiday Saturday’s event, “but it’s really a time for people to center the voices of Indigenous people, to understand what the needs and priorities are of the community.”

More than 20 municipalities in Massachusetts, including Boston, Brookline, Cambridge, Somerville, among others, officially recognized Indigenous Peoples Day as of October 2021, according to the Massachusetts Center for Native American Awareness.

If Massachusetts does away with Columbus Day to make way for Indigenous Peoples Day, it would join Alaska, Iowa, Michigan, Oregon, Maine, New Mexico, Vermont and Washington D.C. in renaming the day, according to the Pew Research Center.

Supporters of Indigenous Peoples Day have been subject to threats of physical violence by opponents outside of meetings in towns and cities across the region, said Mahtowin Munro, co-leader of United American Indians of New England.

Most non-native people in Massachusetts are unaware of the tribes that exist in the state, such as the federally recognized Aquinnah Wampanoag and the Mashpee Wampanoag, Munro said.

“We are celebrating our survival and our resilience, but we are also celebrating our resistance,” she said. “That resistance has been going on ever since Columbus landed on these shores … It happens everywhere, and we can’t forget that. We get so much inspiration from our ancestors, knowing what they went through.”