Petition Seeks To Replace Columbus Day In Atlanta With Indigenous People’s Day

ATLANTA, GA -- Following a trend that has spread to multiple U.S. cities, a new petition sets out to replace Columbus Day in Atlanta with Indigenous People’s Day. The petition, which as of Tuesday morning has garnered more than 18,500 supporters out of a possible 19,000, is addressed to the Atlanta City Council.

This year the holiday falls on Monday, Oct. 9. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

The petition's author is Sarah Rose, who petitioned successfully earlier this year to have rainbow-patterned crosswalks installed in Midtown. Now, Rose, an Atlanta activist, is setting her sites on Christopher Columbus, widely hailed in U.S. history books as the explorer who discovered America.

"But Columbus did not 'discover' America: he pillaged it and brutalized and enslaved its people," the petition says. "It is time to stop honoring him."

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Rose adds this in the care2petition:

"Columbus' letters, and those of the men who accompanied him, reveal horrific brutality to the Native people. Columbus started the transatlantic slave trade and cut off the hands of any Native over the age of 14 who didn't bring him enough gold.Columbus routinely gave his lieutenants women to rape as a “reward."

He humiliated women in other ways, too: a Native woman who verbally insulted Columbus was made to ride on a mule around the town naked, and then her tongue was cut off. Women who gave birth were so malnorished and unable to produce milk, they often drowned their babies out of desperation.These are just a few accounts of the horrors the Native Americans endured at the hands of Columbus. It is well past time we stop honoring him."

Several cities around the United States, including Seattle, Los Angeles, have replaced Columbus Day. Several states, including Hawaii, Iowa, South Dakota and Vermont, celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day.

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