Sadly, the Columbus Day holiday is pretty much the utmost in white supremacy, celebrating a man who perpetrated devastation upon the denizens of the land he “discovered.” Indigenous People’s Day is a way to honor both the strength and the vulnerability of those who have managed to survive in the face of atrocities.
Who lived on the land where you are now before the white people arrived?
The Nipmuc tribe were the inhabitants of this area (Worcester, MA and surrounding area). There are still Nipmuc people here. My cousin married a Nipmuc man, and his grandfather is the chief. Their children were welcomed into the tribe in a ceremony when they were about 4 years old, once they could actively participate.
When the new bridge over Lake Quinsigamond was built, they put up educational signage on the pedestrian sides, including Nipmuc history.
I live in an area where the Osage Native Americans were living at the time that Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery planned by Thomas Jefferson passed through this area.. There was no overt animosity between them but no alliance either. Later the Osage tribes were moved to Oklahoma where they are currently on their own Reservation lands. During the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial commemoration in 2003/4/6, we were visited by representatives of the Tribe and introduced to the current life style and other aspect of their lives in Oklahoma. One wonders how different things would have been if they had been allowed to stay here.