{"id":107066,"date":"2016-01-22T16:55:56","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T23:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/indigenous-peoples-day-bill-inspired-by-fort-lewis-college-student\/"},"modified":"2016-01-22T16:55:56","modified_gmt":"2016-01-22T23:55:56","slug":"indigenous-peoples-day-bill-inspired-by-fort-lewis-college-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/indigenous-peoples-day-bill-inspired-by-fort-lewis-college-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day bill inspired by Fort Lewis College student"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Legislature will examine replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day, following in the footsteps of the Durango City Council. The proposed legislation was inspired by Fort Lewis College student Ruthie Edd.<\/span>Russell Contreras\/Associated Press file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 A state lawmaker has proposed replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day, following in the footsteps of the Durango City Council.<\/p>\n

Rep. Joe Salazar, D-Thornton, said he was inspired by Ruthie Edd, the Fort Lewis College student who pushed for the change in Durango. Edd argued that Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day is a much more accurate historical reflection.<\/p>\n

The Durango City Council earlier this month backed her proposal.<\/p>\n

Salazar took note, responding with legislation to accomplish the same thing statewide. Columbus Day falls on the second Monday of October.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt provided an awful lot of encouragement for us to move forward,\u201d Salazar said of the Durango effort. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of the students down there.\u201d<\/p>\n

For proponents of the change, the issue is about not wanting to honor Columbus, who they say engaged in genocide and slavery.<\/p>\n

Those on the other side, however, say the move would erode their heritage and tradition as descendents of European Americans. They add that Columbus Day has been a part of their lives since childhood. The issue is especially personal for Italian Americans, who feel robbed by no longer being able to celebrate Columbus.<\/p>\n

Some suggest having Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day on a different day than Columbus Day.<\/p>\n

But Edd said honoring Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day on Columbus Day is a way for Coloradans to embrace their true history. While miners and early settlers seem to get much of the attention, Edd \u2013 who is a member of the Navajo Nation \u2013 pointed out that it all started with American Indians.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good platform to talk about these issues, to really heal from them for native people, and then for the state to both acknowledge that this was done and help everyone heal,\u201d Edd said.<\/p>\n

But the state legislation faces an uphill battle in a divided Legislature, where Republicans control the Senate and Democrats hold the House. Salazar said he has had trouble convincing Republicans to support the effort.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republican side is seen as very removed and racist when it comes to black and brown issues,\u201d Salazar said.<\/p>\n

Republican Rep. Lori Saine of Firestone decided not to support the legislation, but took issue with the way Salazar characterized Republicans\u2019 opposition to the measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that\u2019s going to be the tonality this session, if that\u2019s what we\u2019re starting out with, is calling Republicans \u2018racist,\u2019 I think the voters are really tired of that argument, but I guess we\u2019ll find out,\u201d Saine said.<\/p>\n

Edd said her quest will continue, even if the state bill fails. She plans to take the issue across La Plata and Montezuma counties.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t stop,\u201d Edd said. \u201cAs long as there are people who are passionate about it, this issue will continue to be raised.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

legislation follows effort by Durango<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":107067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,561,70,265],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-107066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-native-american","tag-news-lead","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107066"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=107066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}