In Favor of Celebrating Indigenous People's Day

 
 
 

 

Last month, Focus on the Family published an article in favor of continuing to celebrate Columbus Day as the nation has done for the last 86 years.

Paul Batura, the author of this piece, ponders how his (presumably settler) reader should respond to the growing support for honoring the second Monday in October as Indigenous People’s Day rather than Columbus Day.  He tells his readers they should not feel remorseful for continuing to celebrate Columbus on this day regardless of the national shifts happening relative to this holiday.

This is a topic that has become increasingly important to me in recent years and I disagree with Batura’s conclusions.

Batura claims that Columbus embarked on an evangelistic journey across the Atlantic Ocean because of Divine inspiration.  He never questions whether the claims in Columbus’ journals are true, nor does he stop to consider the profound impact of Columbus’ continued actions after he landed on Turtle Island, despite significant scholarship on the subject.

In addition, Batura does not critique Columbus’ form of evangelism marked by the “convert or die” paradigm distinctive of the crusades in the late 15th century.

Instead, Batura limits his reader’s choices to either betraying Christian colonial history by celebrating Indigenous people’s day or feeling guilty for celebrating Columbus Day.

But these are not the only options.

I believe we always have choices.

We do not have to continue to perpetuate historic, colonial harms.

Consider what would have happened if Columbus — after getting lost at sea, drifting into a land he never knew existed, and meeting people groups he had never conceived of — had chosen friendship, gratitude, and connection instead of colonial domination & genocide.

What if the Divine inspiration Columbus claimed drew him to embark on his voyage was an invitation to a more expansive relational and theological transformation?

It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?  The world as we know it would be an entirely different place.

Such an exercise helps to expose the chasm between the colonial harms experienced on Turtle Island for the last 500+ years and what could have been.  It breaks my heart.

In this moment, we, as people of faith, can utilize one of the best options we have at our disposal — repentance — which always opens the door to deeper relationship.

We have the option to choose to be transformed by relationship rather than doubling down on colonial narrative

This is the invitation: will we lean into relationship and connection where Columbus and those who came after him did not?

So as we turn the calendar to Native American Heritage Month , I invite us to lean deeper into remembrance, repentance, and relationship.  We can engage our world in a way that Columbus and his legacy did not.

I believe that honoring the second Monday in October as Indigenous People’s day is one way we can recognize Native resilience and thriving in the face of genocide.  It opens the door to a collective celebration of Native delight, Native culture and flavor, Native friendship, wisdom, and collaboration, and all the things that wouldn’t exist if Columbus and colonial genocide had entirely succeeded.

May we learn to tell a more complete and honest story about our collective history and legacy so that we can build a different kind of future together where we all can thrive.  This is my hope.

Here are some ways you can go deeper on this topic:

  1. Visit this LINK to learn whose land you are living on now. What is their story?

  2. Read.  One accessible resource that has increased my learning on this topic is Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery by Mark Charles and Song Chan Rah.

  3. Get involved.  Find out what issues are facing the Native communities in your area and how your vote can enable these communities to thrive.

  4. Research whether your state currently recognizes Indigenous People’s Day.  Who is working in your state to make this a reality?  How can you support them?

  5. Show up.  Attend your local pow-wow.  Shop Native.  Attend local Native-led events where you can build new friendships.