"It is difficult to grapple with the complete accomplishments of individuals and also the costs of what those accomplishments came at," said Mandy Van Heuvelen, the cultural interpreter coordinator at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian.
"The History Wars of the 1990s can show us that compromise and accommodation can temporarily defuse controversy — but tempt us to postpone the harder work of seeking justice and truth."
As a historian, I see recent attacks on indigenous Americans and intrusions on tribal lands as part of a lengthy tradition of violence. But this year has witnessed a surge in apologetics for colonial violence in history that give support to present-day harm.
Donald Trump's participation as a military school drill team member shows that his love of spectacle has remained unchanged even as the national dialogue on racism and history has been transformed.
This year the District of Columbia joins at least five states and dozens of cities and counties in replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. It’s part of a decades-long reckoning with the sanitized version of the European colonization of the Americas.
The growing recognition and celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day actually represents the fruits of a concerted, decadeslong effort to recognize the role of indigenous people in the nation’s history.
Leif Erikson Day is a celebration of the Viking explorer credited with reaching the continent around the year 1000, nearly 500 years before Columbus did.
While historians caution against lumping in Columbus with Confederates who came three centuries later, they say Columbus’ holiday and monuments remain ripe for reassessment — whether they stay, change or vanish entirely.
