Why are we dedicating a national holiday to a murderer? Why are we teaching children that Christopher Columbus was a hero? Why are we overlooking the native people that were resided in America before Columbus? Columbus Day needs to be changed to Indigenous People’s Day because Columbus Day honors someone who enslaved and murdered thousands of Native Americans.

In 1492, Columbus arrived to the Americas, introducing European colonization. However, Native Americans didn’t consider his introduction to be positive. In a New York Times article, Redhawk Native American Arts Council Director, Cliff Matias, described that Columbus “massacred, raped and pillaged hundreds of thousands of Taino Indians, committing crimes against humanity at such a high rate.” People should talk more about the Columbus genocide. Matias continues saying that “when we have a Christopher Columbus statue up anywhere, we’re honoring a criminal.” This used to be the basis of our country.

On March 20, 2018, West Hartford, a larger town in Connecticut, changed the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. Cheryl Greenberg, a member of the West Hartford’s Board of Education, wants to change the “singular focus on European explorers and colonizers” and instead make it “a focus on multiple voices and perspectives.”

In honor of their ancestors, the indigenous people believe that changing the national holiday to Indigenous People’s Day is a step in the right direction. A joint statement issued by the Mohegan Tribe Tribal Council, Council of Elders, Chief and Medicine Woman expressed, “All humanity needs to recognize the moments in our shared history that should never be repeated.  We appreciate the leadership that the West Hartford Board of Education has demonstrated in shining a light on this heartbreaking period in history.”

A senior student representative on the West Hartford Board of Education from Conard High School, Grace Andrews, is excited about the change. Once the decision was final, Andrews “got an overwhelming amount of support at school. Everyone seemed to welcome the change and they wanted to help me get the word out”. She believes this will begin a movement for other districts around the country to follow West Hartford’s example.

Many other cities throughout the United States are also replacing Columbus Day with a new title; fifty-seven cities and four states nationwide celebrate, either through “Native American” or “Indigenous People’s” Day. In 1994, Berkley, California, was the first city to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. Loni Hancock, the mayor of Berkeley in 1992 and former California state senator told TIME, “It seemed like a re-emphasizing of history and recognizing that to be very ethnocentric really diminishes us all.” If the government doesn’t follow its constituents, then the wounds Columbus left behind will never heal.