Nebraska lawmakers debated a proposal on Wednesday to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
The bill would get rid of Columbus Day and instead make the second Monday in October be known as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. But in the end, lawmakers passed a compromise amendment to recognize both days.
While the bill was in committee, some legislators said Christopher Columbus was a murderer who enslaved people and should not be honored.
Collette Yellow Robe is an instructor at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She said the failure to replace Columbus Day is a big miss. "As we know the history of Columbus - he did not discover a new world. It's really old and damaging history," she said.
However, some Italian-Americans wanted to keep the holiday as is. State Senator Tony Vargas said keeping Columbus Day and adding Indigenous Peoples' Day is a good compromise.
"Some of the concerns that I also heard is that people really did identify with Columbus Day as Italian-American. They felt a personal connection being that that individual was born in Italy," he said.
Giovanni Portera is one of those people. He does not like the idea of sharing the holiday. "Let's keep the federal holiday as it is and have Nebraska come through with there own proclamation, with their own date set aside for the American Indians," he said.
The bill needs two more votes and a signature from Governor Pete Ricketts to become law.