Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples Day Share a Monday and a Long-Running Debate

Monday is Columbus Day, a federal holiday, and for many Americans it is also Indigenous Peoples Day. The two observances fall on the same date, the second Monday in October, and how a community marks it has become a small but telling measure of how the country tells its own history.

Columbus Day is the official one. Federal offices are closed, and the Postal Service is not delivering regular mail, CBS News reported. The stock markets are open for normal hours, however, and banks vary: Wells Fargo and Bank of America branches are closed, while JPMorgan Chase branches are open. Large retailers such as Costco and Walmart are keeping regular hours. CBS noted, citing the Pew Research Center, that the holiday is not observed consistently across the country.

Indigenous Peoples Day is not a federal holiday, but it has been recognized for decades under various names, the Associated Press reported. Many states and cities have shifted the focus of the October holiday away from Christopher Columbus and toward the Native peoples whose lives and cultures were upended by European colonization. Some states and the District of Columbia now have holidays honoring Indigenous people, and some cities and school systems observe the day either alongside Columbus Day or in its place.

Washington’s stance has changed with the occupant of the White House. Former President Joe Biden formally commemorated Indigenous Peoples Day in 2021. In his proclamations, he wrote that “for generations, federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people,” the AP reported. President Trump has said he will not continue Biden’s practice of recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day alongside Columbus Day.

The case for keeping Columbus Day has deep roots of its own. For many Italian Americans, the holiday has long been a celebration of their community’s place in American life, and even Biden’s separate Columbus Day proclamations praised Italian Americans’ contributions to the country while acknowledging the harm done by Columbus and other European explorers, episodes that, the AP reported, he said the nation should not seek to bury.

Supporters of Indigenous Peoples Day argue that honoring Columbus alone glosses over the harm that followed European exploration, and that a day recognizing Native communities offers a fuller account of the nation’s past and present.

Observances of Indigenous Peoples Day typically include ceremonies, dances and speeches, according to the AP. The day also often brings protests against memorials to Columbus, along with calls for environmental justice and for the return of Indigenous lands.

For most Americans, the practical questions are simpler: whether the mail is coming, whether the bank is open and whether the children have school. But the two names on one Monday reflect a debate about memory that is unlikely to be settled soon.