There has been a growing movement to change the name of Columbus Day, which has been a federal holiday since 1934. Some activists say that celebrating it ignores the atrocities committed by Christopher Columbus and other European explorers against the indigenous people they encountered. A troubling testament to the terrible actions committed by Columbus and his men came from a study earlier this year, which found that so many Native Americans died from a combination of massacres and disease in the 16th and 17th centuries — around 56 million— that the earth’s climate actually cooled 0.15 degrees Celsius as agricultural land was abandoned back to forests and other plants. Oregon, Minnesota, South Dakota, Alaska, North Carolina, and New Mexico have all renamed the holiday that falls on the second Monday of October, as have at least 130 cities and towns. This week, Maine joined that list to become the seventh state in the US to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day in honor of America’s first inhabitants.
Maine just ditched Columbus Day and replaced it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day
More of Today's Solutions
How robots and drones are cleaning the ocean floor across Europe
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Most ocean cleanup efforts work on the same assumption: the problem floats. Skim the surface, collect the plastic, ...
Read MoreHummingbird migration 2026: when they’ll reach your garden and how to get ready
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Right now, somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico, a hummingbird that weighs less than a nickel is crossing ...
Read MoreThrills and chills: how horror films can improve your mental health
The mere mention of legendary horror films such as "The Exorcist" and "Silent Night, Deadly Night" conjures up images of terror and revulsion. But ...
Read MoreIrish town’s Smartphone ban offers blueprint for digital balance and ki...
The daily quandary of when to introduce smartphones to tweens resonates with parents worldwide. Greystones, County Wicklow, in Ireland, however, didn't just grapple with ...
Read More
