Every year, the country celebrates Columbus Day and the “discovery” of America. But Columbus’s brutal treatment of the people already here is his real legacy, which lingers today.
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For Indigenous People’s Day, we’re reposting some of our best coverage on indigenous communitie
Every year on the second Monday of October, millions of Americans get a day off from work in honor of Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of America in 1492. The day is always a controversial one, as it glorifies a man who launched a large-scale genocide and European colonization.
It was a show of respect to Native Americans when President Obama on Sunday restored the name of the nation’s tallest mountain,
formerly called Mount McKinley, to Denali. So it makes a lot of sense
that presidential candidate Donald Trump didn’t like it.
For generations, members of the Apache Native American tribe have
viewed Oak Flat as a holy, sacred place. Located about an hour due east
of Phoenix, Arizona, the land has long served as a site for traditional
acorn gatherings, burial services, and rite of passage ceremonies for
young women. The flat is tucked inside Arizona’s Tonto National Forest,
and has historically been protected by the federal government.
Carrie Sage Curley: “It’s our sacred land — it’s where we come to pray.”