Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day
12 October 2026
Columbus Day is a federal holiday in the United States, observed on the second Monday in October; in 2026 that is 12 October. On the same Monday, many states and cities also mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which honors the Native peoples who were here long before Columbus sailed and disputes the word discovery. One date carries two names, and the second name is younger than most people assume.
The Columbus holiday began as a celebration of Italian-American heritage as much as of the explorer. The first recorded observance was in New York City on 12 October 1792. In 1892, weeks after 11 Italian immigrants were lynched in New Orleans, President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed a one-time national observance for the 400th anniversary. Colorado made it a state holiday in 1907, and Congress created the federal holiday in 1968, effective 1971.
Indigenous Peoples’ Day came out of protest. In 1977, delegates at a United Nations conference in Geneva proposed replacing Columbus Day with a day for Indigenous peoples. South Dakota was the first state to change the name, in 1990, calling it Native American Day; Berkeley, California, was the first city, in 1992. In 2021, President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation for the day.
The two names share a date because they answer the same question: what to call the arrival of 1492. The National Museum of the American Indian notes that the colonial takeovers that began with Columbus led to the deaths of millions of Native people and the forced assimilation of survivors, and that generations of Native people have protested the holiday. Federal law still calls the second Monday in October Columbus Day.
How the day is kept depends on where you are. Federal offices close. Under the name Columbus Day, timeanddate.com lists it as a state holiday in 22 states; Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a state holiday in the District of Columbia, Maine, Nebraska and New Mexico and a state observance in 28 states. South Dakota keeps Native American Day, Hawaii marks Discoverers’ Day, and Oklahoma also lists Native American Day.
Sources
- Library of Congress, “Today in History — October 12”
- Congressional Research Service, “Columbus Day: Fact Sheet” (R44218)
- Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, “Rethinking How We Celebrate American History — Indigenous Peoples’ Day”
- Federal Register, Proclamation 10283, “Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 2021”
- U.S. Office of Personnel Management, “Federal Holidays”
- Timeanddate.com, “Holidays and Observances in the United States in 2026”
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