Elgin students want to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day

A group of students want Elgin to be the first city in Illinois to designate Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples' Day.

The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, the students argued at the city council meeting Wednesday, didn't “discover” the land that later became the United States because it was already inhabited by Native Americans.

The holiday, as currently named, celebrates a history of violence, they also said.

“We believe Indigenous Peoples' Day is a great solution to the problem, because we will be able to learn about Native American history, heritage and culture,” said Alejandro Santoyo, a junior at Elgin High School.

Cities including St. Paul, Minnesota, Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, have taken action to designate the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Youth Leadership Academy is a leadership skills program for students through high school and based at Elgin Community College; about 10 students worked on this project that involved extensive research, said YLA Executive Director Dianha Ortega-Ehreth.

The group started investigating sports team mascots names that are considered offensive by Native Americans and then ended up focusing on Columbus Day, she said.

As part of their research, the students interviewed Elgin area Native Americans who agreed that Indigenous Peoples' Day is a more appropriate name, they said. They showed a video of a few of those interviews at the council meeting.

“The claim that he (Columbus) found us…,” one Native American man says in the video. “We weren't lost. We were here for generations.”

“I think it's going to make us more visible,” another one says about designing the holiday to Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Mayor David Kaptain said the students plan to do gather input from the community at large and come back with another presentation to the city council later this year.

Kaptain said he's not open to the idea at the moment. “We listen to everything,” he said, “but they have a lot of work to do still.”

Student Ariana Benitez, a freshman at Streamwood High School, said she's aware this is an uphill battle. “We realize it's going to be difficult,” she said, “but change is possible.”