Les Begay, co-founder of the Indigenous Peoples Day Coalition of Illinois, said he doesn’t want to share the holiday with Columbus anymore.
On Monday, the day that’s long been marked as Columbus Day on calendars around the country, a group of local leaders gathered at a North Side park to call for the holiday to be completely renamed to Indigenous Peoples Day.
Not shared.
“We want to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. Not share. Replace,” Les Begay, co-founder of the Indigenous Peoples Day Coalition of Illinois, said Monday at a news conference at Pottawattomie Park in Rogers Park.
“It’s already a holiday. You don’t have to do anything. Just change the name,” said Begay, a member of the Dine Nation.
Various local and state recognitions of Indigenous Peoples Day are not enough, he said.
In 2017, Gov. Bruce Rauner signed a bill recognizing Indigenous Peoples Day in Illinois on the last Monday in September as a commemorative observance, not a paidholiday forgovernmentworkers.
Begay said the state’s Indigenous community wasn’t consulted on the matter.
A bill in the Illinois House proposed last year that would swap Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples Day has not advanced.
