Columbus Day no more: Reno to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday
On Monday, the city of Reno will recognize its first official Indigenous Peoples Day, replacing recognition of Columbus Day. The City Council approved the move in a unanimous vote Oct. 2.
"(C)itizens of Reno join other cities and states in setting aside this day to celebrate and honor the thriving, diverse cultures of the Indigenous peoples in the Reno area," the official proclamation reads in part. "Indigenous Peoples Day shall be the second Monday in October of every year instead of and as a replacement for any official recognition of Columbus Day by the city of Reno."
The declaration is the culmination of a yearlong effort by American Indian Movement Northern Nevada to gain official status for the decades-old holiday. But several members of the Sons and Daughters of Italy, Cristoforo Colombo Lodge 1534, have said they felt blindsided by the resolution.
2016 incident prompted the push
During AIM Northern Nevada's protest of Columbus Day and the Keystone XL Pipeline in 2016, 18-year-old Nicholas Mahaffey plowed through the crowd of protesters in a pickup truck. Kitty Colbert, a protest participant and Army National Guard veteran, was seriously injured in the incident.
"It gave us a little bit of motivation because we were all traumatized from that," said Ray Bacasegua Valdez, president of AIM Northern Nevada.
An intertribal group in 2017 lobbied the Nevada Legislature to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. Columbus Day hasn't been celebrated officially as a state holiday since 1992, when the Legislature replaced it with Nevada Day.
The effort resulted not in the replacement of Columbus Day, but in the declaration of Aug. 9 as Indigenous Peoples Day, coinciding with a worldwide recognition of indigenous peoples by the United Nations.
"The state kind of gave us a trinket," Bacasegua Valdez said.
While other groups worked for state-level recognition, AIM Northern Nevada opted to lobby city governments to establish the holiday's recognition.
"We felt that the time was now," Bacasegua Valdez said. "Reno is a pretty progressive city."
Council opts against simultaneous holidays
AIM Northern Nevada members proposed the abolishment of Columbus Day along with the establishment of Indigenous Peoples Day at the Aug. 14 Reno City Council meeting. While the city's Human Rights Commission suggested language that would have allowed both holidays to be recognized simultaneously, Councilman Oscar Delgado argued that the two were incompatible.
"One of the issues I have with not removing Columbus Day and putting Indigenous Peoples Day is really not answering the bigger question in terms of why we're even doing this," Delgado said during the Oct. 2 meeting. "It's really an acknowledgement that we're rejecting oppression, we're rejecting systematic racism, we're rejecting these things — we're not really doing that if we're saying we're moving forward with Columbus Day."
"I believe the time has come for us to acknowledge that Columbus Day is not something we need to celebrate," Councilman Devon Reese added. "There is a time and a place for us to acknowledge the painful history that has occurred among indigenous peoples and I think this is a small thing that we can do to make that acknowledgment be known."
Per Reese's direction, the language confirming Columbus Day's replacement was added to the resolution before its unanimous approval.
'This isn't a race issue'
Official governmental recognition of Indigenous Peoples Day in the United States began in South Dakota in 1989 with what was then called Native American Day. In all, 10 states and more than 130 cities have adopted the holiday.
Columbus Day lives on in Montana: Indigenous People's Day bill defeated by lawmakers
Reno is among several locations in the United States officially recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day for the first time this year. Other locations new for 2019 include South Lake Tahoe; Washington, D.C.; Dallas and the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Mexico, Vermont and Wisconsin.
"I know the Italian Festival is this weekend. We're pretty specific that this isn't a race issue," Bacasegua Valdez said, noting that his organization's issues were with the celebration of Christopher Columbus specifically.
'You have stolen my heritage day'
Members of the local chapter of the Sons and Daughters of Italy, the largest Italian American fraternal organization in the U.S., say they were surprised by the move, and want the Reno City Council to overturn the resolution.
"We are very upset about how the City Council handled the changing of the name of Columbus Day without even trying to contact any members of the Italian community," said Pam Ricci, president of Cristoforo Colombo Lodge #1534.
"I hear you have stolen my heritage day without allowing others to be aware of the actions you were going to take," Barbara Fumosa Wisnieswki wrote in a letter to the mayor and City Council. "The fictitious stories passed around by those against Cristoforo Colombo are not backed by fact. Your need to hold him accountable to 21st-century morals is ridiculous."
Monday celebration at City Hall Plaza
AIM Northern Nevada will celebrate the holiday on Monday evening at 5:30 with a prayer circle at City Hall Plaza. Bacasegua Valdez said he hopes this celebration is just the beginning.
"It's a name, yes, it's a change," he said. "But what are we going to do with it? We're excited with the energy that it's going to create."
He said he's not worried about a repeat of violence at the ceremony.
"I feel pretty good. It's not like we're blocking anything off. I think that there's always going to be people in opposition or don't feel supportive. I think we'll be just fine."
Brett McGinness is the engagement editor for the Reno Gazette Journal. He's also the writer of The Reno Memo — a free newsletter about news in the Biggest Little City. Subscribe to the newsletter right here. Consider supporting the Reno Gazette Journal, too.