OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. – On Monday, October 14, states and municipalities across the United States celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but some social media users were shocked when they came across a post from the Oklahoma State Department of Education (OSDE) that honored Columbus Day.
“This is Oklahoma. We don’t celebrate colonizers here,” wrote one X (Twitter) user.
Following public outcry, OSDE published a second post stating, “As Oklahomans, we celebrate Indigenous people and here at OSDE, where approximately 158,000 native students are educated at Oklahoma Public Schools, we invest in our shared future every day.”
Indigenous Peoples’ Day was first commemorated by President Joe Biden in 2021. Despite this monumental acknowledgment, the day is not considered a national holiday. Oklahoma is among several states that recognize Indigenous Peoples Day.
Also known as Columbus Day, the holiday was ceremonially renamed to honor Native Americans, Alaskans, and Hawaiians who have a sordid relationship with colonization. In Oklahoma, where 39 tribal governments share the land, many chose to pay homage to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
History of Columbus and Indigenous Peoples’ Day
On October 12, 1492, a Spanish fleet headed by Italian navigator Christopher Columbus spotted land after a ten-week voyage across the Atlantic. Many believe Columbus discovered America on that day, but his fleet actually landed on a small island in the Bahamas.
The first recorded national celebration of Columbus’ landing was 300 years later in 1792. It wasn’t until almost five centuries later in 1934 that President Franklin Roosevelt officially established national recognition for the day.
As the United States has grown and developed, so has the mindset of honoring the first Americans who occupied the land before European colonization arrived. President Biden became the first U.S. leader to proclaim the holiday as Indigenous Peoples’ Day in 2021.
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“On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor America’s first inhabitants and the Tribal Nations that continue to thrive today. I encourage everyone to celebrate and recognize the many Indigenous communities and cultures that make up our great country,” said Biden in his official proclamation. This, however, did not establish a national holiday but instead served as an act of recognition.
The push for Indigenous Peoples’ Day far precedes the President’s 2021 proclamation. In 1977, global Indigenous groups attending a United Nations convention drafted the first resolution to observe an International Day of Solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas in place of Columbus Day. Over the following decades, American states and cities slowly began to adopt the practice.
Culture Wars and the OSDE
Oklahoma’s Department of Education is no stranger to public backlash. State Superintendent Ryan Walters has an extensive history of controversial actions ranging from committee appointments to promoting the use of the Bible in state classrooms.
Recently, there have been bipartisan calls for an investigation into the OSDE as well as ongoing litigation regarding infringement of the Open Meetings Act. Walters has often cited that his actions are to push back against “woke leftists.” However, in Oklahoma, Democrats only make up 28% of registered voters.
