Welcome to the Kotkeye Ride Home for Monday, October 11th, 2021. I'm Jackson Bird today. It's Indigenous People's Day. More and more local governments are making it official, but why did we start celebrating Columbus Day to begin with?

Plus, the impressive and gnarly competition to be crowned Miss Navajo Nation,

and the history of National Coming Out Day, including the connection between pride celebrations

and Halloween. It's a long episode today with a record number of

presidential proclamations, so buckle up for this holiday of holidays as I share some of the cool

things from the news today. On Friday afternoon, President Biden became the very first U.S. President to issue a presidential proclamation of Indigenous People's Day, writing, quote,

For generations, federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate native cultures.

Today, we recognize indigenous peoples' resilience and strength,

as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society.

End quote.

And here is a bit of background on Indigenous People's Day from NPR, quote,

The idea was first proposed by Indigenous peoplesoples at a United Nations conference in 1977,

set to address discrimination against natives.

But South Dakota became the first state to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day in 1989, officially celebrating it the following year. Biden's proclamation signifies a formal

adoption of a day that a growing number of states and cities have come to acknowledge. Last week,

Boston joined Arizona, Oregon, Texas, Louisiana, Washington, D.C., and several other states

in dedicating a second Monday in October to Indigenous People's Day. Native

Americans have bared the brunt of the work to make that happen. Many state and local governments

have gone a step further. More than a dozen states and well over 100 cities celebrate the day,

with many of them having altogether dropped the holiday honoring Columbus to replace it with

Indigenous People's Day, end quote.

But a lot of Italian Americans specifically aren't too happy about Columbus Day being taken

...