FIU Global Indigenous Group starts petition to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Melissa Burgess/ PantherNOW

Columbus Day is less than a month away and although it’s no longer a day students get off from school, it has always been regarded as a day to honor Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America on Oct. 12, 1492.

Since its establishment as an official federal holiday in 1937, making it 79-years-old, the celebration was initially accepted as a way to commemorate the arrival of Columbus in the “New World.”

Now, opposition has arisen to fight back against Columbus Day.

The Global Indigenous Group at FIU believes the FIU community should no longer celebrate Columbus Day and instead replace it with a day to honor the Native Americans who were already occupants of the land Columbus so called found.

Destiny Medina, a sophomore and psychology major, said, “It’s about time that we celebrate the contributions and achievements that the indigenous people gave to this world. Having this day would actually benefit the younger generation by educating them [on] the history they never really hear about.”

According to Wendolynne Perez, president of the Global Indigenous Group and member of the Quechua nation, the initiative to propose a change in holiday came from a friend of hers who had proposed the same idea to her school but was denied.

Perez mentioned that this was also around the time her home country, Peru, was facing issues against indigenous people’s rights.

“After that, we kind of started talking about ‘Why isn’t FIU doing something for its indigenous students, faculty and its members of the community?’ We have Miccosukee down the road, Seminoles up north and being an international school, it should be able to give more voice to all of its students,” said Perez.

Efforts to gain support of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day have included creating a petition.

According to a Facebook post by Perez, by changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day, “Florida International University would be celebrating the contributions of indigenous communities and cultures; and acknowledge the genocide and oppression of Indigenous and Native American people.”

Perez also mentioned how the entire student body have been extremely supportive, including minority organizations on campus who have made it their priority to spread the word around and especially, President Mark B. Rosenberg.

On Sept. 2, the petition was presented to the Student Government Association at the Modesto Maidique campus with more than 400 signatures and as of Sept. 7, the petition currently contains more than 500 signatures.

Eden Jumper, CSO representative of the Global Indigenous Group and a member of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, hopes they can do away with what people are usually taught in elementary school in regards to Columbus Day and teach them the real narrative.

“We hope that we can get people to become comprehensive and acknowledge what really happened in the past because once you acknowledge what’s happened in the past, that’s it, you’ve broken that story forever,” said Jumper.

Perez considers the story of discovery a complete lie. According to her, how do you discover a place that people have lived in for thousands of years?

“The narrative is a lie and one that subjugates people into believing that us, as indigenous people, are dead, are gone, or were evil, noble savages, or ‘children lost from God.’”

Perez points outs that if we don’t have a holiday for Hitler because he committed genocide, why then should we have a holiday for Christopher Columbus who also committed genocide.

“The whole idea is that we’re not trying to tell people ‘oh, Italian people are bad since Columbus was Italian.’ This genocide happened and lead to the Trans-atlantic slave trade system and we see it justified as something that had to happen for the world to continue flourishing and so I’m saying that’s not true because a lot of our culture, agricultural, and our way of living lead to being found in the first place,” said Perez.

“Had we not shared that knowledge with the pilgrims then they would have never known how to harvest this world. It’s about showing respect and justice so why should we glorify a man that murdered our people?”

Perez and Jumper assert that if their petition gets denied, all efforts toward changing the holiday will not stop. They will protest on Solidarity Day, as well as contact Miccosukee and the media.

Perez hopes that FIU does not go down this route because, according to her, FIU is sure to lose partnerships, namely the Miccosukee, should they disapprove of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day.

“We’ve seen the examples of other universities and whole entire states change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day so I guess in a way you could say that we’ll be one of those examples that other local and national places can take as a model of ‘fighting for justice actually worked’ or at least we hope so,” said Jumper.

“If you give us our voice, we’re going to tell you what really happened, the real truth and that’s terrifying to think that everything you knew was a lie. You would have to live with the fact that the land you live in is not your land, it is covered in our blood and that’s why you have a country, you had to kill us to have your own.”

The Global Indigenous Group will be submitting its updated petition to SGA on Monday, Sept. 12 at 4 p.m. in GC 150.

The petition will also be presented to the Faculty Senate on Sept. 13 at 1 p.m. in Wertheim Conservatory 130.

“If you give Indians a day, you give them power and a voice,” said Perez.

Perez and Jumper urge the FIU community to sign their petition even if they’re not indigenous because doing so “unites us all in sisterhood and brotherhood against oppression.”

“We know the real story so let’s not be shut down by fear. It wasn’t right then and it’s not right now so we hope everyone can stand with us throughout this entire journey fighting for our right to justice,” said Perez.

1 Comment on "FIU Global Indigenous Group starts petition to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day"

  1. lmfao good luck

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*