You might not have noticed it was Columbus/Indigenous People’s Day until you went to get your mail and found none. Here are some facts you might not know about the day or Christopher Columbus.
- Columbus Day has been a federal holiday since 1937, but was first observed by the state of Colorado in 1906.
- Since 1971, it has been observed on the second Monday of October, which is also the day Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving Day.
- Nobody knows what Christopher Columbus looks like. No known portraits exist of him. Portraits have been made based on written descriptions
- Columbus didn’t discover America. He never set foot on North America.
- He committed atrocities against the natives, enslaving some, and the settlers introduced diseases, such as small pox, to them. For these reasons and more, many states, including Oregon, have changed the name and observation to Indigenous People’s Day.
If you’d like to learn more, here is an article with further information about Columbus.
