Denver’s 1st Columbus Day Parade in 9 Years Goes on Amid Protests

For Italian Americans, it was meant to be a celebration of the man they believe discovered America, but for the Native Americans who were here first, the Columbus Day parade Saturday only rubbed in centuries of agony and broken promises.

The several hundred participants in the parade through downtown Denver smiled and waved, but their greetings were met with chants of “Columbus was a walking plague,” “No more Columbus Day” and “Go back to Italy.”

Police arrested 147 parade protesters who sat or stood in the middle of the street to try to stop the first Columbus Day parade in the city in nine years, saying the explorer who arrived in the Americas in 1492 was a slave trader who carried out genocide.

Mayor Wellington Webb, whose city spent $100,000 on overtime for police officers and barricades, said he was grateful the parade continued without violence.

“These are two very proud groups of people, and both parties worked peacefully and nonviolently,” the mayor said.

Colorado was the first state to declare Columbus Day a holiday. The last time Denver tried to stage a parade to mark the day, in 1992, it was canceled at the last minute amid threats of violence.

Parade participant Alberto Navarra, who was born in Italy and now lives in the Denver area, said: “Deep down in our hearts we know what we believe--that Christopher Columbus discovered America.”

Less than 10 minutes after the first marchers stepped off, about 150 protesters stood in the middle of the street, blocking the parade.

Dozens of police officers acted as a buffer between members of the American Indian Movement and parade participants, preventing direct confrontations.

When the protesters refused to let the parade pass, they were arrested and charged with loitering and unlawful assembly.

Police said those arrested would end up paying fines of no more than $20.

AIM leader and university professor Glenn Morris waved before police an agreement, later abrogated by parade organizers, under which the name Columbus would not have been used.

“We honored the agreement. The city betrayed the agreement. But we honored our pledge,” Morris said after he was arrested. AIM leader Russell Means, who was among those arrested, spoke out in front of City Hall against what he called 508 years of genocide and the “trailer-trash mentality” behind the parade.

Means told about 500 supporters: “I’m sorry, but the day of Gandhi and Martin Luther King are over. We’re going to outsmart them.”

He said AIM would ask other nations to put pressure on the United States to remove Columbus Day as a national holiday.

The hastily arranged event sported no bands, although “That’s Amore” blared from loudspeakers. The parade of three dozen motorcycles, stretch limousines, two Hummers and trucks with names like “The Italian Stallion” would have been over in a half-hour if not for the delay caused by the protest.

Parade organizers initially agreed to keep mention of Christopher Columbus out of the event, but later argued that this violated their freedom of speech.