Hi Friends. 

Keeping this edition abbreviated and to the point:

Monday, October 11, is Indigenous Peoples Day.

I'm writing this from New York City - the epicenter of its competing holiday, Columbus Day.  It's here where organizers behind the city's Columbus Day Parade are touting it as the nation's largest. 

As of this writing on Sunday morning, it's unclear whether Mayor Bill DeBlasio will be marching in the parade. Last year, when the event was held virtually, he wasn't even invited. 

In the past, the Mayor's Office has offended the Columbus Citizens Foundation when DeBlasio's wife, Chirlane McCray, cut Mother Francis Cabrini, America's first canonized saint, from a list of honored women under consideration for a statue in the city. 

DeBlasio drew further ire from Italian-American New Yorkers when the city's public school system scrapped the holiday in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day last year. 

New York City and the State of New York remain strongholds for those defending Columbus Day from eradication.  The storied holiday was politicized in the 19th century in honor of Christopher Columbus, a man who never even set foot on North American soil, and whose diaries from his exploring in the Caribbean celebrated the evil imposed on Indigenous people. 

I went state-by-state examining statutes and official state holidays and found that as many as 17 states actually declare Columbus Day as an "Official State Holiday."  And despite all the hype that you might be seeing in your headlines about how Indigenous Peoples Day is gaining momentum, only four states have officially ditched Columbus Day for Indigenous Peoples Day.  Three others, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Alabama, want to have it both ways: Columbus and Indigenous Peoples Day. 

That's not how it works.

Turns out, how we frame memory and story - it actually has power to hurt people, ruin lands, brainwash our kids. It's why Indigenous Peoples Day isn't an assault on Italian-Americans or a mechanism to sow division. It's a direct gauge of how we value history.  

This week, Biden wanted it both ways when he issued a proclamation honoring Indigenous Peoples Day then issued a second one upholding the federal holiday, Columbus Day - all while speaking nothing to the error of historical record.

To be clear, Columbus was not the first European in the Americas.  And collectively, these explorers  didn't "discover" anything. Indigenous Peoples were thriving here for millenia.  It's estimated that in the 130 years following first contact, we lost 95 percent of our population.  It's for this reason that in Australia, Indigenous people there regard their "Columbus Day" as Invasion Day.  

I keep saying it: we are living in one in one of our most compassionate hours  - aware of deep injustices and the inequality it breeds - and yet our society seemingly struggles with how to act compassionately. (To Biden's credit, he restored Bears Ears National Monument this week and it still has me glowing.) 

I leave you with these thoughts as you look for ways to honor Indigenous Peoples this Monday. 

• Google your hometown or city and look up events in your area
• Acknowledge what Indigenous lands you are surviving from then explore the treaty history and how you can honor those treaties
• Head to your local library or browse our Indigenously Bookshelf for decolonizing titles - I curated a new list of Indigenous memoirs just for this occasion.