‘Indigenous Peoples Day’ to Replace Columbus Celebration

Christopher Columbus was tossed overboard Friday by city officials who declared Oct. 12 “Indigenous Peoples Day,” stripping the explorer of his honored day.

The city not only dumped the Italian explorer, but it declared 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ landing in America, “The Year of Indigenous People.”

“The New World was here,” said Mayor Loni Hancock. “It was new to Europeans but there were flourishing cultures here.”

The city’s declaration was based on the notion that Columbus was not the heroic man who discovered America but an explorer responsible for the destruction of millions of indigenous people, officials said.

Although Hancock said the change was not meant to be “anti-Italian,” the Sons of Italy’s Commission on Social Justice criticized the action, saying the explorer should be celebrated as the first person to discover the Americas and record the findings.

“We’re very much opposed to it,” said Richard Armento, spokesman for the commission. “It’s kind of tough to rewrite history 500 years after it happens.”

“I’m not suggesting we make him a saint,” he said, but “there’s nothing to say Columbus was a good or bad guy.”

The idea of abandoning Columbus Day was initiated by the Berkeley chapter of the Resistance 500 task force, a group dedicated to publicizing the belief that Columbus was responsible for the genocide of American Indians.

The declaration was also recognized by the school board, which plans to work with the task force to modify Columbus’ image in history classes.

“There’s another side to what Columbus did. We want the children to know that history as well,” said school board member Pedro Noguera.