Recognizing Indigenous People’s Day

Christopher Columbus is still recognized as a national hero every second Monday in October. Columbus Day is a federal holiday, but in 2019, The State of California decided to change the holiday in order to recognize Indigenous Peoples across the state. Although students are always eager to have the much-needed break, the holiday means so much more than sleeping in or catching up on school work.

Indigenous Peoples Day celebrates and recognizes indigenous communities, cultures, and the violence committed against them during the founding of The United States. To many indigenous communities, Columbus has become symbolic of colonization and the violence that caused chaos and destruction in their lives. It was with his arrival that the beginnings of loss in Indigenous lands, lives, and cultures began. Due to this, Native American activists asked for a shift away from Columbus Day, and since 1971, states like California have, albeit slowly, made the change.

Indigenous lawmaker, Rep. Tawna Sanchez, said “I don’t know that we’ll ever get to a place where people have their land back or have the recognition of who they are, to the degree that we need to or should. But the fact that people are paying attention at this very moment — that’s important, because we will have a greater opportunity to educate people and help them understand why we are where we are right now,” she told NPR in 2021.

Located at Duarte, the CSArts- SGV campus sits on what was Tongva land, a settlement that long predated European colonization in the San Gabriel Valley. A step in understanding and respect, Indigenous People’s Day acknowledges the history of the indigenous communities who have lived among the lands we occupy in Southern California.