Columbus Day is not observed until the second Monday in October, but it’s already in the news—again.
President Donald Trump on April 27 posted on Truth Social that he would bring “Columbus Day back from the ashes,” claiming Democrats did everything they possibly could to “destroy Christopher Columbus”—the Italian explorer who landed on American shores in 1492—and his reputation.
But contrary to what Trump’s post may suggest, Columbus Day was never abolished.
In 2021, Democratic President Joe Biden issued a proclamation recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day and honoring the “invaluable contributions and resilience” of Native Americans. But under no circumstance did he eliminate Columbus Day as a federal holiday. And while 18 states, alongside dozens of municipalities, now acknowledge Indigenous Peoples Day (often on the same day traditionally commemorated as Columbus Day), it’s also inaccurate to portray that shift as partisan.
The first state to replace Columbus Day with a “Native American Day” was actually deep-red South Dakota—home to nine Tribes. The change was proposed in 1990 by Republican Gov. George Mickelson as part of a statewide “Year of Reconciliation” between Native and non-Native residents. His aim was to acknowledge the long history of injustice and mistreatment faced by South Dakota’s Indigenous peoples, including the theft of the Black Hills from the Oceti Sakowin (the Great Sioux Nation, made up of Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota tribes), the Wounded Knee Massacre, forced relocations, and the widespread abuse of Native children in church- and government-run boarding schools. Mickelson also sought to recognize the contributions and achievements of Native Americans, such as the service of Native veterans and the sovereign, nation-to-nation status of tribes.
The legislation passed unanimously with bipartisan support. Three decades later, South Dakota celebrates Native American Day instead of Columbus Day in a bid to educate the public about the significance of Native culture and history, as well as narrow political divides.
More recently, on May 9, 2025, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte signed Senate Bill 224 into law, officially making Indigenous Peoples Day a recognized holiday in Montana, home to 12 tribes residing on seven reservations. It will occur on the second Monday in October every year, alongside Columbus Day.
To be sure, Indigenous communities and their allies have long advocated for local, state, and federal governments to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day—a movement that has steadily grown since its formal beginnings in 1990. The day serves to showcase the beauty and diversity of Indigenous cultures and prompt a more honest reckoning with the nation’s violent colonial foundations and the serious challenges Native communities continue to endure today. Among the issues it seeks to highlight is the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women, extreme poverty rates on reservations because of broken treaties, the theft of Native lands and resources, and forced relocation to isolated areas.
In some circles, the push for Indigenous Peoples Day has been accompanied by calls to abolish Columbus Day altogether—a rallying cry that gained momentum in the wake of the George Floyd protests that swept the United States in 2020. Statues of Christopher Columbus were removed or toppled across the country, and public debate about his history and legacy intensified.
Columbus Day was first established as a federal holiday in the 1890s by President Benjamin Harrison to honor the Italian explorer and quell anti-immigrant sentiment after several Italian Americans were lynched in New Orleans.
But today, there are many reasons why folks argue that Columbus is undeserving of his own holiday. For one, Columbus did not “discover” the Americas. When he arrived in the 15th century, millions of Indigenous people with their own distinct cultures, languages, and civilizations had already been living there for thousands of years. Even the Vikings likely arrived on Turtle Island centuries before Columbus.
More troublingly, historical records detail Columbus’ role in brutal acts of violence and mass atrocities against Indigenous peoples. He was a slave trader and sex trafficker who kidnapped hundreds of Native men, women, and children and forcibly shipped them to Spain. He also coerced Indigenous girls as young as 8 to perform sex acts for him and his men, noting that selling children for sex reaped the best profits.
The Indigenous Taino people—whom Columbus didn’t ship to Europe—were instead made to work on plantations or mine for gold. He demanded a daily tribute of gold from Native communities; those who failed to meet his quota often faced brutal punishment ranging from hands being cut off to villages being burned down.
Columbus brought with him invisible enemies: European diseases like smallpox, measles, and the flu, to which Indigenous peoples had no immunity. Scientists estimate that these epidemics ultimately wiped out more than 90% of the Native population in the Americas. When Columbus first arrived, some 250,000 Taino lived on the island. Just 60 years later, only a few hundred remained.
Native American Heritage Month, observed every November in the United States, was formally established by a Republican president: George W. Bush. In 2002, he issued a proclamation recognizing the month, praising Native Americans as being central to American history, and calling them “examples of our true American spirit.” The announcement coincided with the completion of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, which Bush said would help educate Americans about the “lives, contributions, and culture of Native peoples.”
Though President Bush had previously come under scrutiny for being unable to explain what Tribal sovereignty is, members of his administration said Native American Heritage Month was a clear reminder of his efforts “to improve the quality of life for American Indian and Alaska Native people.” Just 20 years later, honoring Indigenous history has once again become a partisan flashpoint—weaponized in battles over school curricula, public monuments, and federal holidays.
History is reality. And denial benefits no one, serving only to deepen ignorance. It is by facing hard truths that we can equip ourselves to make better decisions so we may walk into the future together; stronger for it. In confessing the sins of the past, we free ourselves from it. Only then may we be healed of history’s many untold tragedies.
Do not believe the lie that we are bound to division. We can become the kinds of people our ancestors and future generations can be proud of. Strive.
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