For a long time the second Monday in October has been celebrated as Columbus Day here in the United States. As we have gained a better understanding of the truth and impact on peoples of the Americas that Columbus “discovered” many states have also incorporated the term Indigenous Peoples Day for the holiday.

If, like many workers, you have the day off, spend some time reading about that event. Some of the impact was accidental, like the exposure to diseases the native population had natural immunity to and Europeans at first had no real conception of. Others were quite intentional, like the enslavement of indigenous people and the theft of land and resources. Columbus and his followers quite quickly and violently took the Americas for their own. As this quick animation portrays:

Animated map shows land loss of Native American population from 1776 to 1930 pic.twitter.com/P6WQAhNECy

— Terrible Maps (@TerribleMaps) March 22, 2020

Reading the book “1491” by Thomas C. Mann is an excellent place to start. It will change your viewpoint of what you were taught in American textbooks. Happy Indigenous Peoples Day.

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