--- title: Columbus Day v Indigenous Peoples Day: Cities Change Holiday description: The cities of Phoenix, Denver and the state of Vermont are celebrating Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of Columbus Day on Monday canonical: https://time.com/4524997/indigenous-peoples-day-columbus-day-vermont-phoenix-denver/ author: Tara John article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-10T15:42:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T01:06:15.904Z article:section: U.S. og:title: More Cities Are Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day Instead of Columbus Day og:description: Denver and Phoenix join at least 26 other American cities that have chosen to celebrate Native Americans og:url: https://time.com/4524997/indigenous-peoples-day-columbus-day-vermont-phoenix-denver/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd74f529f8922f9f/6988a956656a3fb57bbcd663/indigenous-peoples-day.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Four Directions All Nations March and Rally og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More Cities Are Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day Instead of Columbus Day twitter:description: Denver and Phoenix join at least 26 other American cities that have chosen to celebrate Native Americans twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd74f529f8922f9f/6988a956656a3fb57bbcd663/indigenous-peoples-day.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More Cities Are Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day Instead of Columbus Day by [Tara John](/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Oct 10, 2016 3:42 PM CUT  Members of Groupo Tlaloc and Groupo Xochitl dance on West Colfax Ave in Denver, Colorado during the Four Directions All Nations March and Rally on Oct. 08, 2016. Members of Groupo Tlaloc and Groupo Xochitl dance on West Colfax Ave in Denver, Colorado during the Four Directions All Nations March and Rally on Oct. 08, 2016.Andy Cross—Denver Post/Getty Images by [Tara John](/author/tara-john/) ## Tara John Oct 10, 2016 3:42 PM CUT Vermont, along with the cities of Phoenix and Denver, are celebrating [Indigenous Peoples Day](http://time.com/4523330/columbus-day-indigenous-peoples-day-history/ "undefined") instead of Columbus Day on Monday, joining at least 26 other American cities that have chosen to focus on Native Americans instead of Christopher Columbus’s arrival to the Americas in 1492. Historians largely agree that Columbus did not discover the Americas, as people were already living there. The Italian explorer’s arrival led to the enslavement of the people in modern-day Haiti, the arrival of diseases that decimated local populations and the opening of the Americas to a painful history of colonialism,[ land grabs and enslavement](http://www.cbsnews.com/news/columbus-day-indigenous-peoples-day-vermont-phoenix/ "undefined"). The idea of Indigenous Peoples Day was first proposed in the 1970s, and in the 1990s in Berkeley, Calif. and South Dakota became the first city and state to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. “One of the biggest misconceptions about Columbus is that he was righteous. The truth is that he was wicked and responsible for the rape and murder of innocent indigenous people,” Leo Killsback, a Northern Cheyenne Nation citizen and assistant professor of American Indian Studies at Arizona State University, [told CNN](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/09/us/columbus-day-indigenous-peoples-day/index.html "undefined"). “We should question why we as Americans continue to celebrate him without knowing the true history of his legacy, and why a holiday was created in the first place. He never landed in the \[U.S.\].” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4524997/indigenous-peoples-day-columbus-day-vermont-phoenix-denver/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4524997/indigenous-peoples-day-columbus-day-vermont-phoenix-denver/"},"headline":"More Cities Are Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day Instead of Columbus Day","datePublished":"2016-10-10T15:42:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T01:06:15.904Z","description":"Denver and Phoenix join at least 26 other American cities that have chosen to celebrate Native Americans","url":"https://time.com/4524997/indigenous-peoples-day-columbus-day-vermont-phoenix-denver/","keywords":["holiday"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd74f529f8922f9f/6988a956656a3fb57bbcd663/indigenous-peoples-day.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tara John","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tara-john/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbd74f529f8922f9f/6988a956656a3fb57bbcd663/indigenous-peoples-day.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Four Directions All Nations March and Rally","caption":"Members of Groupo Tlaloc and Groupo Xochitl dance on West Colfax Ave in Denver, Colorado during the Four Directions All Nations March and Rally on Oct. 08, 2016.","creditText":"Andy Cross—Denver Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/holiday/","name":"holiday"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4524997/indigenous-peoples-day-columbus-day-vermont-phoenix-denver/","name":"More Cities Are Celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day Instead of Columbus Day"}}]}] ```