Cambridge's Indigenous People Day: What's To Know

CAMBRIDGE, MA — In observance of the Indigenous Peoples' Day Holiday on Monday, Oct. 8, Cambridge city offices, libraries, and senior centers will be closed. Payments will not be required at City of Cambridge parking meters and parking meter pay stations, and there will be no trash, recycling, or compost pickup, and no street cleaning.

In 2016 the Cambridge City Council voted unanimously to change Christopher Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day.

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City Councilor Mazen, who proposed the change that year, said at the time the move was intended to reclaim the day for Native Americans killed after Columbus's landing in the Americas.

"It is important to reclaim the day for Native Americans, thousands of whom were killed under Columbus's leadership when he came to the New World," he said, Patch previously reported.

The holiday recognizes Native Americans instead of Christopher Columbus, who activists say represents the colonization of America instead of its discovery.

The celebration first got its start in Berkeley, California in 1992 and has spread since, seeing a steady resurgence since 2014.

The trash, recycling, and compost daily pickup routes will be one day behind schedule for the rest of that week. Regularly scheduled street cleaning routes for Oct. 8 will be swept on Wednesday, Oct. 10. The offices at the Cambridge Cemetery, 76 Coolidge Avenue, will be closed on the holiday, however the gates will be open from dawn to dusk.

Residents can find their curbside collections and street cleaning schedules by entering their address in the “My Cambridge Schedule” tool found at CambridgeMA.Gov/theworks.

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Photo by Jenna Fisher/Patch Staff