The names of national holidays affect how societies remember and interpret the past.

Language influences whose histories are remembered and whose experiences are overlooked.

Renaming a holiday can challenge inherited narratives and broaden historical perspectives.

Every October, the United States marks Columbus Day, a holiday commemorating Christopher Columbus’s 1492 voyage across the Atlantic. But some communities observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead, honoring Indigenous peoples, cultures, and histories. The differing commemorations raise an important question: Who gets to decide which parts of history we celebrate, and whose experiences are left out?

The debate over whether to call it Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day is about more than a holiday. It reveals how language influences our understanding of history and collective memory, and determines whose perspectives are treated as important.

Who Discovered America?

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed west from Europe in search of a sea route to Asia. He reached islands in the Caribbean but mistakenly believed he had arrived near Asia. His voyages helped initiate centuries of European colonization across the Americas.

Yet Columbus is still commonly described as the man who “discovered America.” This familiar expression, however, reflects a distinctly European perspective (Pennock, 2024). The Americas were already home to Indigenous peoples with established communities, cultures, languages, political systems, and histories stretching back thousands of years.

The word "discovery" is contentious. To describe a place as discovered is to imply that it was previously unknown. But unknown to whom? The land was not unknown to the people who lived there. The description makes sense only when we adopt the........

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