This Monday is Columbus Day in the United States. The U.S. government established Columbus Day as a national holiday in 1934 to honor the explorer Christopher Columbus. The day recognizes Columbus’s arrival in the Americas in October 1492. Recently, critics have said that Columbus did not “discover” America since native people already lived there. His explorations helped open the way for a huge migration of Europeans to what they called The New World. This brought war, disease and death to many native peoples. Some American states have since moved away from honoring Columbus and instead observe a day for Native American people. In 2021, President Joe Biden issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The day is to be celebrated along with Columbus Day.
