Facts about "Indigenous Peoples Day"

 President Joe Biden became the first US president to officially declare Indigenous Peoples Day alongside Columbus Day.

Over the past years, states such as Alaska and New Mexico have opted to forgo Columbus Day but have kept the holiday on it, responding to calls from indigenous groups not to celebrate Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer after whom the holiday is named, according to a report in the New York Times.

Indigenous groups say Columbus "brought genocide and colonialism" to societies that were in the United States thousands of years ago, while many across the United States still celebrate the day and consider it an important day in Italian culture.

Indigenous Peoples Day

Usually on the second Monday in October, the world celebrates the Day of the Indigenous Peoples and communities who have lived in the United States for thousands of years, as trends have grown increasingly as an alternative to Columbus Day.

South Dakota is believed to be the first state to officially recognize Indigenous Peoples Day, in 1990, of which many indigenous tribes make up an estimated 10 percent of the population.

Alaska, Oregon and Vermont also designated this day a holiday, and cities such as Berkeley, California, Seattle and Minneapolis followed suit.

Similar days exist under other names in the world, such as Canada, which recognized the National Day of the Indigenous Peoples in 1996, where the government there apologized for years of oppression that demanded the peoples and societies there.

In recent years, many Columbus statues have been removed from cities around the world, including Mexico City.

Activists in cities across the country have protested Columbus Day for years, and informal celebrations of indigenous cultures have been organized, including on New York's Randalls Island.

Even with Biden's announcement, some believe that simply celebrating the Day of Indigenous Peoples is not enough, as no US president has "apologised" explicitly for the country's treatment of these communities during the past years.

But at the same time, proponents of this day argue that it may help draw attention to the gender-based "discrimination and violence" of Indigenous peoples and various health issues, not to mention the indigenous lands that are populated by private projects, mining and drilling.

In his announcement of Indigenous Peoples Day, President Biden said that “For generations, federal policies have systematically sought to assimilate, displace, and eradicate indigenous peoples... We recognize the resilience and strength of indigenous peoples as well as the positive impact they have had on every side. aspects of American society.