The first city in the state of Idaho to do so, Moscow City Council members voted on Monday to change the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The vote was in favor of changing it 5 to 1.  This just in time- as Columbus Day happens on October 9th.

The Moscow Human Rights Commission Chair, Ken Faunce, was in attendance at the city council meeting to explain why the name change needed to happen.

“Columbus is a symbol to Native American groups of slavery, massacres, genocides, violence,” Faunce stated. “All of these kinds of things, so we want to change it for that symbolic reason, that it honors Native Americans.”

Moscow sits on Nez Perce land, and other tribes lived in the area as well.

“We wanted to show that this was Native land first, and we came here second, so we wanted to honor them for that.”

 

“The other reason we’re pushing it is Columbus himself,” explained Faunce. “He shouldn’t have a holiday. He shouldn’t be a hero because he was a mass murderer, he was an abuser, he was a slaver, a sexual slaver, selling people as young as age 10 into the sex trade.”

Not all area residents are thrilled with this decision. Comments on the article on the local radio news page has comments such as ” Very poor move it changes nothing just a bunch of liberal left wing Democrats wanting to revise history,” and “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of, what’s wrong with You people! “

The Oatmeal has a great cartoon lesson on Columbus Day for those who want a challenge to the lessons they learned about in elementary school.

I wish I had clips from the ABC show Blackish. Tonight’s episode fit right in with the subject matter at hand, as the characters were upset about the way the kids’ Columbus Day was inaccurately portrayed. They came up with a new holiday “Juneteenth” to fill in the void in the lack of “black holidays.”

So what do you think? Join in the discussion with your thoughts in the comments below.