PORT ANGELES — Christopher Columbus: a hero to some, a villain to others.
However they see him, City Council members aren’t ready to strip him of his namesake national holiday.
They are, however, willing to consult with Native American tribes to establish an official Indigenous Peoples’ Day, perhaps as soon as this summer.
But it won’t fall on Oct. 12, 2015. That’s the next Columbus Day, an iconic annual event for Americans of Italian descent, including Port Angeles Mayor Dan Di Guilio.
“I’ll be very up-front about that,” he said during a council discussion Tuesday while supporting an observance of Native American heritage, perhaps sharing June 21 with the Canadian National Aboriginal Day marked by that country’s first nations. The day coincides with the summer solstice.
The Lower Elwha Klallam, Port Gamble S’Klallam and Jamestown S’Klallam tribes all have strong ties with Salish bands on Vancouver Island.
‘Respectful,’ ‘inclusive’
Arlene Wheeler, Lower Elwha tribal planning director, urged the council to adopt an Indigenous People’s Day during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s meeting.
She was echoed by Councilwoman Sissi Bruch, a Lower Elwha planner.
“To me, it feels like it would be respectful and inclusive,” Bruch said.
“Celebrating Native Americans would help us as a city.”
Bruch originally had brought it up for discussion in October after the Seattle City Council voted unanimously to call the federal Columbus Day holiday by the name of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
While he endorsed the idea, Councilman Brad Collins warned against abandoning Columbus Day.
Collins called the second Monday in October “an important day for Italian-Americans and other people celebrating European people’s coming to the New World.”
Viking Day?
Columbus traditionally has been portrayed as the first European explorer to cross the Atlantic. That honor probably belongs to Scandinavian voyagers, said Councilwoman Cherie Kidd, who claims Norwegian heritage.
“The Vikings beat Columbus by 500 years,” she said, joking that “I’m kind of in favor of Viking Day.”
“In fourteen-hundred-and-ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue” goes the mnemonic couplet learned by millions of American schoolchildren, but his reputation has been tarnished by historians’ revelations of the cruelty with which he treated the people he found in the West Indies.
Some communities have repudiated Columbus Day, but whatever Port Angeles decides to do, it will be in consultation with the Lower Elwha and related tribes.
Collins and city staff will represent Port Angeles in the discussions.
The celebration could come in sync with a three-day observance planned for this summer of the final removal of the Elwha River dams.
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Reporter James Casey can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jcasey@peninsuladailynews.com
