WASHINGTON, D.C. (Michigan News Source) – President Donald Trump’s agenda is again colliding with local governments in Michigan. This time, it is over celebrating Columbus Day versus Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Columbus Day: “A legacy of faith, courage, and perseverance.”
Trump has sided with Christopher Columbus, whose Columbus Day has been recognized as a federal holiday since 1971.
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Trump’s Oct. 9 proclamation pushed back against the progressive movement’s attempt to demonize Columbus. It was 11 years ago that the liberal media site Vox wrote a story on Columbus Day with the headline: “9 reasons Christopher Columbus was a murderer, tyrant, and scoundrel” and then had a subhead that asked, “Why do we even celebrate Columbus Day?”
Trump provided an answer to that question.
“This Columbus Day, we honor his life with reverence and gratitude, and we pledge to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory,” Trump’s proclamation stated. “Outrageously, in recent years, Christopher Columbus has been a prime target of a vicious and merciless campaign to erase our history, slander our heroes, and attack our heritage. Before our very eyes, left-wing radicals toppled his statues, vandalized his monuments, tarnished his character, and sought to exile him from our public spaces. Under my leadership, those days are finally over — and our Nation will now abide by a simple truth: Christopher Columbus was a true American hero, and every citizen is eternally indebted to his relentless determination.”
Michigan cities ignore the message.
In 2020, the city of Detroit removed the Christopher Columbus statue it had, by a directive from Mayor Mike Duggan.
Many municipalities in Michigan ignore Columbus Day in favor of the more recent Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
In Traverse City, Interim City Manager Benjamin Marentette sent a Oct. 1 memo recommending the city change its ordinance to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a holiday. Marentette said city employees would still work on Indigenous Peoples’ Day if the city recognized it as an official holiday, but the city council would not meet.
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“Indigenous Peoples’ Day recognizes the strength and resilience of Indigenous communities since European ships first arrived in North America in 1492. It’s also a time to celebrate the cultures, traditions and contributions of Native people in the U.S. today,” the Oct. 1 memo stated.
The city of East Lansing adopted a resolution this week recognizing Oct. 13 as Indigenous Peoples Day. The resolution acknowledged the “irreplaceable loss to our collective humanity for the act committed against our indigenous family.”
The resolution stated that the indigenous population was “resisting the occupation of sacred lands indigenous people were enslaved, murdered, and forcibly removed from ancestral lands; and,” … “their populations were decimated through genocide and other unspeakable crimes, to support European colonization of the Americas.”