Colorado Legislature Refuses to Repeal State-Sponsored Columbus Day Holiday

Below: Colorado American Indian Movement Leaders Kim Cameron and Glenn Morris, and Tom Satriano of Progressive Italians to Transform the Columbus Holiday (PITCH), were part of a multicultural alliance that denounced the Democratic Leadership of the Colorado legislature at the Capitol on Tuesday, May 8, 2007 for its refusal to repeal the state's Columbus Day holiday.



Glenn Morris specifically challenged the Denver press to report on Columbus and the genocide of American Indians with the same unequivocal wording they use for the Jewish Holocaust or the African slave trade. No journalist ever writes that protestors "allege" or "say" that Africans were brought to America as slaves, or that Jewish people "view" Hitler as responsible for the Holocaust and "accuse" the Nazis of genocide.

The Rocky Mountain News shows its usual (racist) class in response:

Protestors accuse the explorer of rape and genocide when he came this continent in 1492.

The AP follows in the same, trivializing vein:

(AP) DENVER Protesters who say Columbus introduced genocide to the Americas accused Democratic state lawmakers Tuesday of letting them down when they refused to repeal Columbus Day in Colorado.

Then of course, the Denver Post:

The group has been trying for years to end the celebration of Christopher Columbus, who they say was responsible for genocide against American Indians.

Professor Morris explained in a letter to the Transform Columbus Day Alliance a few days earlier what necessitated the press conference:

After over four months of meetings, drafting sessions, a teach-in, consultations with legislators and the governor, petition and letter writing campaigns, columns and letters to the newspapers, the legislature and governor decided to maintain the anti-Indian status quo.

We recall that when we began this initiative, we knew that it was a long-shot, but we thought that we would give the mainstream politicos one more opportunity to find their backbones and their integrity and do something positive for the state. They declined. So, now, we intend
to hold them accountable. We intend to have a press conference on Tuesday to expose their unwillingness to reverse course on the path of racism in Colorado.

On TUESDAY, MAY 8, at NOON on the WEST STEPS OF THE STATE CAPITOL, we intend to name the names of the people who are responsible for the maintenance of a state holiday to an Indian-killing, slavetrader. We are going to begin by recounting the effort at repeal, and we are going to call to account everyone from the Governor to the President of the Senate, to the Speaker of the House, for their cowardice on this issue. The only three elected representatives who will be free from this lesson in accountability are Senator Suzanne Williams, who was willing to put forward the resolution in the face of stunning racism and sexism from her own party, Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, who attempted to put together a resolution to bring to light the American Holocaust against Native peoples, and Senator Jim Isgar who represents the Ute reservations, and who said that he would support the bill to repeal C-Day.

The second point of the press conference is to announce, formally, the plans for a series of events in September and October of this year to address the 100th anniversary of Columbus Day in Colorado. We will begin with a "Truth Commission on Columbus and His Legacy," with notable national and international participants, the second weekend in September. We are planning an anti-genocide art/music/spoken word festival, a conference on the "Doctrine of Discovery and The Imperial Legacy of Columbus -- from the 1492 to Iraq." There will be several events that present a different model for recounting and teaching history, and, of course, there will be a massive, oppositional voice to the Columbus Hate Speech Parade on October 6th. If the politicians of Colorado refuse to repeal Columbus Day, we will inspire a grassroots movement to repeal it for them.