Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, but some say that in 2020, that’s nothing to celebrate. “We don't celebrate Columbus Day,” said Penny Ann Tarchow, a Putnam County resident descended from the Cheyenne people. “It's a day of mourning for us, for Native people. It was the end of life as we knew it.”

For years, there has been a movement to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, a way to celebrate the history and culture of the people who inhabited America long before 1492. But the idea hasn't caught on in New York, often considered one of the nation's most progressive states. Even at a time when the Black Lives Matter movement has inspired a new reckoning with race and racism, there has been little push to move Christopher Columbus from his perch as a revered historical figure.