Students to hold Columbus Day march on Capitol Building to challenge holiday

Not every American child celebrates Columbus Day by learning the rhyme about 1492 and Christopher Columbus sailing the ocean blue. In 17 states, Columbus Day is not recognized at all. Some Boise State students are doing their part to make Idaho the 18th state that doesn’t observe this holiday.

Bryan Moore, the president of the Intertribal Native Council of BSU, is organizing a march from the BSU Student Union Building to the Idaho State Capital Building to encourage recognition of indigenous populations instead of Columbus. The march will leave at 2:30 p.m. from the Fireside Lounge in the SUB on Monday, Oct. 10.

Moore said the march is intended to bring awareness to the history of indigenous groups affected by Columbus and other such explorers.

“It’s not a protest,” Moore said. “There’s false things being presented in U.S. history and we want others to take a look at it.”

Moore said Columbus is not the hero American history remembers him as. Rather, he killed Native Americans and cannot be credited with discovering North America because Native Americans were already living in the Americas. Columbus never set foot in North America, nor did he even believe he had discovered a new land, Moore said.

“Why do we celebrate Columbus?” Moore asked.

After the march, Nancy Egan, president of the Boise based Woman of Color Alliance, will speak on the steps of the Capital Building at approximately 3 p.m. Moore said he hopes the event spreads education and awareness.

According to Moore, most people don’t consider that Columbus wasn’t the first person in North America, but that indigenous people dwelled here before Columbus sailed the ocean blue. The holiday should commemorate them, not Columbus, Moore said.

Associated Students of BSU Sen. Phetsamay Joy Olson said, growing up in Hawaii, she didn’t learn about Columbus the same way Idaho students did.

“I learned it differently,” she said. Hawaii is one of the 17 states that does not observe the holiday.

Moore said the march is open to students of all races, not just indigenous people groups. He said he hopes the march becomes an annual event until the Idaho Legislature passes a bill not to celebrate Columbus Day.

Moore said a BSU organization marched the Idaho State Capitol to encourage the observance Martin Luther King Day, which it now does. Moore said he hopes BSU students today can have the same impact.

Tessa Schweigert / Asst. News Editor

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