Trump defends Columbus Day, accuses ‘radical activists’ of trying to rewrite history
In 1937, Columbus Day became an official federal holiday to celebrate the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas 445 years earlier.
For some, the Oct. 12 holiday pays tribute to Italian-American culture and honors Columbus’ discoveries. But to others, it’s a grim reminder of violence against the indigenous people of North America.
The debate has led some advocacy groups and supporters alike to propose a change from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, a proposal that was kickstarted in 1977 with the International Conference on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations in the Americas.
Now, President Donald Trump is firing at “radical activists” that “have sought to undermine Christopher Columbus’s legacy.” He proclaimed Oct. 12, and the second Monday of every October going forward, as Columbus Day to celebrate the “legacy of American heroes” who “tamed the wilderness and built the single-greatest nation the world has ever seen.”
“These extremists seek to replace discussion of his vast contributions with talk of failings, his discoveries with atrocities, and his achievements with transgressions. Rather than learn from our history, this radical ideology and its adherents seek to revise it, deprive it of any splendor, and mark it as inherently sinister,” Trump wrote in a proclamation released Friday.
“Together, we must safeguard our history and stop this new wave of iconoclasm by standing against those who spread hate and division,” Trump added.
Some of the main arguments in support of replacing Columbus Day include the “hundreds of years of violence and slavery, forced assimilation and conversion of Native American people to Christianity and the introduction of a host of new diseases that would have dramatic long-term effects on Native American people,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Berkeley, California, was the first city to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 1992, the group said. Since then, several other states have followed, including Alaska, Maine, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Wisconsin and North Carolina.
Trump says “we must not give in to these tactics or consent to such a bleak view of our history.” He went on to list several steps he has taken to ensure future generations learn about America’s “storied heritage.”
Trump signed an executive order in June that says any person or group that destroys or vandalizes federal monuments, statues or memorials — such as the recent events during protests for racial justice — will be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
In July, he signed another executive order to create a “National Garden of American Heroes” where monuments of American figures will sit. Then in September, Trump formed a “1776 Commission” responsible for “[encouraging] our educators to teach our children about the miracle of American history and honor our founding.”
In the same month, the president signed an executive order to “root out the teaching of racially divisive concepts from the Federal workplace, many of which are grounded in the same type of revisionist history that is trying to erase Christopher Columbus from our national heritage.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 11:29 AM with the headline "Trump defends Columbus Day, accuses ‘radical activists’ of trying to rewrite history."
