Austin And Los Angeles Join The Growing Trend To Replace Columbus Day With Indigenous People's Day

Meera Dolasia
Fri, 06 Oct 2017 13:06:32 -0700

Columbus Day has been a fixture on American calendars since 1937, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared October 12 a federal holiday to honor the Italian explorer who “discovered” the Americas in 1492. However, the holiday, whose date has since been changed to the second Monday of October, has always been somewhat controversial. Many people believe that Christopher Columbus should not be given credit for “discovering” the continent, since Native Americans had already been residing there for generations.