Is Columbus Day Still a Federal Holiday? Indigenous Peoples Day Explained

With Columbus Day, which some states recognize as Indigenous Peoples Day, on Monday, Americans are wondering what that means for their daily schedule.

Columbus Day marks Italian explorer Christopher Columbus’ landing in the New World on October 12, 1492. The holiday is celebrated on the second Monday of every October, and this year it is October 9. The holiday was first celebrated on October 12, 1792, which was the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ landing.

One hundred years later, in 1892, Columbus Day was declared a federal holiday by former President Benjamin Harrison. Harrison called Columbus “the pioneer of progress and enlightenment.”

As Columbus Day is one of 11 federal holidays, all government offices are closed. No mail will be delivered on Monday, and most banks and the bond markets that trade in U.S. government debt will be closed. The stock market, however, will remain open. Most businesses also remain open on Columbus Day.

A student of Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory of North America holds incense during an event celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day in the Hollywood area on October 8, 2017, in Los Angeles, California. The event is a celebration of the Los Angeles County’s decision to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. Getty

In recent years, some states and cities have renamed the federal holiday Indigenous Peoples Day or another name to recognize and honor the Native Americans who were already living on the land when Columbus arrived. In 2021, President Joe Biden officially commemorated Indigenous Peoples Day.

Native Americans have long protested the holiday and have sought to rename it because Columbus’ actions set off a series of European colonial takeovers that led to the deaths of millions of Native people.

State leaders and other government officials have started to recognize Native Americans’ concerns. In 2001, the United Nations noted that “in the New World, white European colonizers arrived and settled suddenly, with drastic results. The indigenous peoples were pushed aside and marginalized by the dominant descendants of Europeans. Some peoples have disappeared, or nearly so,” in a report ahead of the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance.

Native Americans will conduct ceremonies and events in dozens of states and cities in honor of their history.

Pew Research Center reported that Columbus Day is one of the most inconsistently celebrated holidays. Most states have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, or celebrate the holidays concurrently, with 16 states and the territory of American Samoa exclusively observing Columbus Day. Seventeen states have a holiday honoring Native Americans, including four states and Washington, D.C., that have renamed Columbus Day and recognize the day under a different name.

For employees in 26 states, workplaces don’t celebrate the government holiday at all and employees still go to work like any other workday throughout the year.

Newsweek reached out to University of Southern California professor Peter Cooper Mancall, an expert in Christopher Columbus, the colonization of North America and Native American history, for comment.