Tribes support bill to change Indigenous Peoples Day date in Nevada

Tammi Tiger, left, director of the Tribal Education Initiative at UNLV; Sydney Williams, center, a representative of the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony; and Arlie Stops, a high school teacher and member of the Crow tribe, attend a legislative hearing Tuesday in Carson City on a proposal to change the date that Nevada observes Indigenous Peoples Day. Photo by Kyle Chouinard

CARSON CITY — A proposed Nevada Assembly bill would move the state’s Indigenous Peoples Day to the second Monday in October, despite some complaints that it would overlap with Columbus Day.

Assemblymember Shea Backus, D-Las Vegas, introduced the bill Tuesday, which was Nevada Tribes Day at the Legislature.

Assembly Bill 144 would see Nevada, home to 28 federally recognized tribes, observe the holiday the same day as several other states. Nevada marks the holiday on Aug. 9.

“This bill will align the date to honor the resilience of our ancestors and to uplift the enduring legacies of Indigenous peoples, their voices, their cultures and their connections to this land,” Backus, a member of the Cherokee Nation, told the Assembly Committee on Government Affairs.

Backus acknowledged multiple legislators’ offices have received emails from people opposed to the bill, saying it would infringe on Columbus Day.

“I have a deep respect for our Native Americans and a very great love for them. I don’t oppose an Indigenous Peoples Day, but when you put it on Columbus Day, you essentially erase Columbus Day,” said Jamie Hansen, president of the conservative organization Nevada Families for Freedom.

Columbus is an “icon” among Italian Americans, and Columbus Day is a way for people to honor Italian culture and ancestry, she said.

Assemblymember Richard DeLong, R-Reno, also took issue with the holidays overlapping, saying it would lead to confusion.

But Backus noted that holidays already sometimes overlap. Hanukkah and Christmas were both celebrated Dec. 25 last year, she said.

Speaking in favor of the bill, the Rev. Augustine Marquez said the Indigenous community has “nothing against our Italian brothers and sisters.”

But Christopher Columbus committed atrocities in modern-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic that led to his arrest in 1500. From Columbus’ arrival in the Americas in 1492 to 1600, European colonization led to the death of 56 million Indigenous people, according to research from University College London.

Sydney Williams, a member of the Walker River Paiute Tribe representing the Reno Sparks Indian Colony, said Indigenous people in Nevada already observe the holiday on the second Monday of October.

“This isn’t about taking anything away from one community to another,” said Mathilda Miller, the government relations director for Native Voters Alliance Nevada. “Speaking as an Indigenous person myself, we know what it’s like to have something taken away from us.”

After the meeting, Miller said she was “expecting a lot of feedback, particularly about erasing Columbus from history.”

“It’s actually kind of ironic that the same people who are shouting about erasure actually are kind of forgetting the fact that Indigenous communities have been the subject of erasure,” Miller said.

The committee took no action on the bill.