Some ask: Why not 'Indigenous People's Day?'

Saturday, March 19, 2005
By TOM BELL, Portland Press Herald Writer

Portland children would celebrate "Indigenous People's Day" rather than Columbus Day if the three Green Party members on the Portland School Committee had their way.

But other committee mem- bers say the board lacks authority over federal holidays and shouldn't even consider the issue.

Committee member Jason Toothaker is leading the effort to change the holiday's name. He says Christopher Columbus exploited Native American people and robbed and enslaved them. Many Native Americans view Columbus's 1492 voyage as a tragic event that launched the European colonization of the New World, he says.

Toothaker describes himself as one-sixteenth Indian. His father's grandmother was a member of the Penobscot tribe, he says, and he remembers that when he was a child, his father's side of the family didn't like Columbus.

"He opened the way for the slave trade," Toothaker said. "Because of the way he interacted with the natives, he should not be heralded as much as we are heralding him today."

At Toothaker's request, the School Department this week circulated a survey about the holiday name change to city teachers. School officials have yet to release the survey results.

Toothaker proposed the change to the Professional Development Committee, which is in the process of drawing up next year's calendar.

Pqiptes Dana, a research assistant at the Sipayik Museum at the Pleasant Point Indian Reservation in Perry, says the name change is a great idea. She says children in the reservation school celebrate Indian Day in September and go to school on Columbus Day, ignoring the holiday altogether.

"It's not one of our holidays," she said.

Portland School Committee members Benjamin Meiklejohn and Stephen Spring also support the holiday name change.

"I long have thought that this was the most hypocritical holiday we celebrated," Meiklejohn said. "It should be changed to acknowledge the people who were originally here."

Spring said the San Francisco United School Department, where he was a teacher, celebrated "Columbus/ Indigenous Day." Both he and Toothaker believe that celebrating a "double" holiday that honors both Columbus and Native Americans would be a good compromise.

But School Committee member Jim DiMillo says the idea is absurd, an example of symbolic politics that distracts the board from doing its job.

"I think the people who run the schools should make sure the kids get the best education possible," DiMillo said. "We have better things to worry about than what we call Columbus Day."

Camillo Breggia, former president of the Italian Heritage Center, says Columbus was a great explorer and navigator. Breggia says his actions more than 500 years ago are being unfairly judged according to the values of modern society.

"They kind of give Columbus a bad rap," said Breggia, 66, who in the 1980s and early 1990s led an effort to erect a statue of the Genoese explorer on Munjoy Hill. The statue was never built.

Breggia says Columbus Day should be celebrated if only because the discovery of America was a turning point in world history.

"What was done to the Indians was not very nice," he said. "You can't change history. But you can accept it for what it is."

School Committee Chairman Jonathan Radtke says he's not sure if the committee will even take up the matter.

"It's a federal holiday," he said. "It's not our issue."

Staff Writer Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-6369 or at:

Tom Bell, Staff Writer

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Special thanks to Bea Woodward for this story lead.

March Reports

Last updated on March 19, 2005