On October 14, 1492, Columbus’s ship sailed to North America, and 142 years later this day was proclaimed as a federal holiday in the United States – Columbus Day. But, despite the law, in some states it was not celebrated, because they believed that the arrival of Columbus and the conquest of America by the Europeans, which led to enslavement and high mortality among the indigenous peoples, was not a reason for the holiday.
In 1992, Berkeley, California, symbolically replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. This holiday was created specifically to honor the memory and history of the indigenous peoples of the continent (mainly Indians) and to support their culture. Later, some cities and the state of South Dakota followed Berkeley’s example and did not celebrate Columbus Day, but only Indigenous Day. Since the Black Lives Matter protests began in late spring this year, accusations of Indian genocide have been raining on Columbus, and at least 33 of his statues have been thrown from their pedestals, or removed and stored away to avoid vandalism, or are currently in the process of dismantling. The last city to vote to remove the Columbus statue was recently in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.