The Native American Student Union, a CIO devoted to promoting native culture and raising native visibility on Grounds, is speaking out about Columbus Day.
The holiday, which is celebrated annually on the second Monday in October, commemorates Christopher Columbus’s arrival to the New World in 1492. Although it was celebrated unofficially for years, it was declared a national holiday by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1937.
This year, Columbus Day falls on Oct. 10.
However, NASU President Charley Lyda, a fourth-year College student, said those in the organization believe the celebration of Columbus is not appropriate.
“Columbus’s coming and his meeting with the Taino people is something that shouldn’t be romanticized because it did bring about a lot of deaths, a lot of erosion of native culture, obviously disease and to some extent, slavery of native people,” Lyda said. “These are millions of lives that we’re talking about, cultures that have been around for thousands of years that were affected by this.”
NASU is proposing the name of the holiday be changed to “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” to celebrate the native people affected by Columbus, a change which Lyda said is already recognized in various tribes and cities as an alternative to Columbus Day.
“We feel it is more appropriate for it to be named and to be celebrated for the native peoples, the millions of native peoples who died because of [Columbus],” Lyda said. “Instead of honoring that man for what he did, we should be honoring the native people who were here first and their cultures and the people they lost.”
Lyda said he recognizes some people may be hesitant to the change because “they see that as one of the things that started the domino effect that kind of led to the founding of America.”
Additionally, Lyda attributed this romanticization of Columbus Day to a general unawareness of native people.
“Most people on the east coast have never been face-to-face with a Native American person in their life, I don’t think,” Lyda said. “I think it’s easier to say, ‘Why would you care about Indigenous [Peoples'] Day if you don’t know anybody or are not friends with anybody who’s native?’ You don’t have the face-to-face interaction, it’s not something that’s on your mind.”
This recognition of native people is something NASU is working to bring to Grounds.
“We really want people to know that however small it might be, there is a native community on Grounds,” Lyda said. “This is a native issue that we want to bring to the front.”
In order to educate students about Indigenous Peoples’ Day, NASU will be handing out flyers on the subject during its frybread fundraiser next Monday. The group will also be reaching out on social media to share its stance on Columbus Day.
“It’s still relevant today and it should be seen for what it was and not the romanticized version of what people think it is — this event that led to America’s founding,” Lyda said. “It was a thing that led to some serious repercussions for a lot of people.”
Despite the day being a federal government holiday and a Virginia state holiday, the University does not recognize Columbus Day.
“The state and the University observe the same number of days off each year, but the University takes different holidays because of the student-centered nature of its business,” University spokesperson Anthony de Bruyn said in an email statement. “This cuts down on the number of days that administrative offices would have to stay open despite it being a ‘holiday.’”
De Bruyn cited the state’s recognition of George Washington Day in February, despite the University being open on that day.
“Instead, since there are no classes on the day before Thanksgiving in 2016, we have designated that day as a holiday and are able to allow the majority of our employees to be at home with their families,” de Bruyn said.
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