The University of St. Thomas should follow in the footsteps of other organizations and cities by recognizing the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

The yearly celebration of Christopher Columbus for his "Discovery of the Americas" is a painful distortion of the truth. With the backing of the Christian Doctrine of Discovery, which allowed for the eradication and enslavement of non-Christian people, Columbus introduced the Transatlantic Slave trade to the Americas and left behind a violent legacy of oppression, rape, enslavement, and genocide of Black, Brown, and Indigenous peoples.

The legacy of Columbus lead to mass cultural eradication of Native peoples in the form of mandatory boarding schools and orphanages. 

History books misrepresent the happenstance encounter as a “discovery”, when Indigenous people in the Western Hemisphere long called this their home. Native people paid for -- and continue to pay for -- this encounter with their labor, land and lives. 

This day should be recognized as a celebration of the strength and resiliency of indigenous cultures and peoples who survived Columbus and the centuries of oppression that have followed. We ask that the University of St. Thomas follow in its values and be an example of what reconciliation with these communities looks like.