Since 1972 Columbus Day has been recognized as a national holiday throughout the United States of America, but recently cities such as Charlottesville recognize a different holiday instead, Indigenous Peoples Day. A growing trend of not recognizing Columbus Day has gained traction in many places, including Charlottesville City Schools. CHS students do not receive a school day off for recognizing the federal holiday. The change comes from the uncovering of the actions Christopher Columbus did to the native inhabitants of America when he first arrived from Europe. In reality, Columbus did some pretty bad things, like enslaving thousands of peaceful native Americans. When the Native Americans tried to revolt he brutally killed them and paraded their bodies through the streets of what is now the Dominican Republic. In addition, he also introduced European diseases to the local inhabitants, leaving devastating effects on their people for generations. 

Instead of Columbus Day, a replacement holiday has surfaced with the goal of achieving what wasn’t before, recognizing the lives of Native Americans whose lives were ended due to Christopher Columbus. Currently, the second Monday of October is a federal holiday “that commemorates the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Americas in 1492.” As children in preschool, most of us remember learning about Columbus discovering the Americas. Samuel Ewing, a senior, recalls his teachings about Columbus: “I just remember learning about him when I was little. Stuff like he sailed the ocean blue and founded the Americas.” In a schoolwide survey, CHS students overall supported not recognizing Columbus day with 70% of the votes. Of that percentage, 85% of them voted to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ day. But the most support came for having a school day off for indigenous peoples day, with 91% of all respondents wanting a holiday. This is evident from senior Noah Boswinkle’s input, “While I would rather have an extra day off of school, I understand why we don’t recognize Columbus Day.” 

The formal switching to recognizing Indigenous People’s day occurred in 2017 when the city of Charlottesville also began to recognize it as well. Dr. Irizary’s stance on the holiday is: “As a school, we do try to recognize the contributions of Indigenous People as opposed to Christopher Columbus.” Albeit many students would be eager to have another school day off: it seems unlikely. Due to the requirements of being in school 180 days per year, it’s a logistical problem to give a school day off for the holiday, which the same goes for Veterans day. Although we do not get a school day off for the holiday, it is important to recognize the history surrounding the Indigenous People who inhabited this land before us.