Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Humboldt County, Ca., (KIEM) Monday is Indigenous Peoples’ Day which kicks of Indigenous Peoples’ Week here locally.

Instead of locals celebrating Christopher Columbus for Columbus Day residents are using this day to honor Native American people. Also to commemorate Native American history and culture.

Indigenous Peoples’ Day is celebrated all over the United States and for some states is now considered an official holiday.

One local tribe member said it’s about time we do away with Columbus Day as the Italian explorer did not mean well.

“I feel like it’s a great energy and a great start for the American people to start realizing that we’re not going to celebrate genocide or we’re not going to celebrate these people that produced mass murders,” said Shannon Albers of the Yurok Tribe. “We’re not going to do that anymore. We’re going to start fixing our problems and apologizing for our mistakes and we can move forward as a people and as one.”

There will be several events taking place at Humboldt State for the rest of the week.