By The Herald Editorial Board
While Columbus Day remains a federal holiday, Washington is one of many states that no longer observes it. (Only 23 states and Washington D.C. still recognize it as a paid holiday, CNN reported.) In its stead, many cities and some states have voted to declare the second Monday in October as Indigenous People’s Day.
Bellingham, Seattle, Olympia, Yakima and Spokane are among Washington cities that have voted to rename and repurpose the day. Everett and other Snohomish County cities would do well to adopt a similar declaration, which doesn’t create an official holiday, but a day of honor.
At least 26 cities across the country, and some states, celebrated Native Americans yesterday, with the number growing every year. The idea of celebrating Indigenous People’s Day was first proposed nearly 40 years ago, when a delegation of Native nations to a U.N. conference in Geneva passed a resolution, the Washington Post reported. The effort to rename the day began to see results in 1990, when South Dakota renamed Columbus Day to Native American Day, the Associated Press reported. Two years later, Berkeley, Calif., began observing Indigenous Peoples Day.
So the idea has been around for awhile. Seattle joined the movement in 2014, and Spokane this year. “I would hope the country could celebrate a day when indigenous people, and people that have gone through so much, could have a voice,” Scyla Dowd, a 13-year-old member of the Inupiat tribe born in Spokane, told the City Council, The Spokesman-Review reported.
Matt Remle, the Native American liaison at Marysville Pilchuck High School, wrote the resolution passed by the Seattle City Council and Seattle School Board in 2014 and told the Seattle Globalist he’s been impressed by the local and national changes since.
“The national response has been amazing in the sense of how many communities and individuals have taken this up,” Remle said, reporting that people in towns and cities across the country reached out to him asking for advice on establishing Indigenous Peoples Days in their own city.
Joann Kauffman, a Nez Perce tribal member and Spokane resident who first proposed the change to the Spokane City Council, summed up the change in a comment to the Tribal Tribune (Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservatioon):
“This resolution is the beginning of a step toward truth and reconciliation,” Kauffman said. “The second Monday of October would be really better served in terms of understanding our shared history that began in 1492 as Indigenous Peoples Day.”
The blueprint is there for Everett, and other cities in the region that would like to join this growing, important movement.
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