Harvard has quietly adjusted its calendar to recognize the second Monday in October as both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day, reflecting a move by the City of Cambridge to rename the holiday last year. Still, some Native American students say they want the University to formally renounce Columbus Day, arguing that the Italian explorer should not be celebrated.
Last June, the Cambridge City Council unanimously agreed to change the name of the holiday to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Nadeem A. Mazen, the Cambridge city councillor who proposed the city’s renaming of the holiday, said the move was intended to reclaim the day for Native Americans killed after Columbus’s landing in the Americas.
