I am well aware of the feelings among many American Indians about Columbus Day. One Lakota woman who worked for me used to ask if she could come in and work on Columbus Day, a federal holiday.
My feeling though is that we can’t have enough holidays and so I choose to think of Columbus Day as the Italian-American holiday. Nothing wrong with that. We have an African-American holiday on Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. We have the Irish-American celebration that is St. Patrick’s Day. And Cinco de Mayo is surely the Mexican-American holiday, a much larger celebration here than in most of Mexico.
So, instead of protesting Columbus Day, perhaps American Indians should organize and bring about a holiday of their very own. Given the great diversity among Indian nations (and, lets face it, a proclivity for endless debate), the tribes might never reach agreement, though, so I will suggest a date.
The day before Columbus Day.
I protested in my own way. I tried to go to the library AND the post office today.
I’m going to pretend it was on purpose, too.
I’ve never thought of Martin Luther King Day as an African-American Holiday. I’ve always considered it Civil Rights Day. King is remembered for his work within the civil rights movement but he would not have been able to achieve what he did without the militant side of the civil rights movement. His message is accepted today only because the Oppressors would rather us forget the alternative methods presented by The Panthers, Malcolm X, AIM, SDS, etc).
I think most people consider St. Patrick’s Day & Cinco De Mayo as excuses to drink. Not that they put much thought into the history, tradition or culture of the holiday. Columbus would have preferred it that way.