Fuck Columbus — Happy INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' DAY

Wipe out almost the entire native population of the land you “discovered” — slaughter, slavery, disease — and then get a holiday named after you?!?

Seattle has now joined a few other cities and states that have renamed Columbus Day.  Bellingham, WA — north of Seattle, almost to the Canadian border — is considering whether to change Columbus Day to Coast Salish Day.

Minneapolis voted earlier this year to change the holiday to Indigenous People's Day.  And the states of Hawaii and South Dakota have renamed Columbus Day to Discoverers' Day and Native Americans Day, respectively.

The Seattle City Council vote took place this afternoon.  But last week the Seattle School Board voted unanimously for the city's schools to observe Indigenous People's Day instead of Columbus Day.  The Seattle School Board's resolution says the board “recognizes the fact that Seattle is built upon the homelands and villages of the Indigenous Peoples of this region, without whom the building of the City would not have been possible.”

The resolution also says the board “has a responsibility to oppose the systematic racism towards Indigenous people in the United States, which perpetuates high rates of poverty and income inequality, exacerbating disproportionate health, education and social crises.”