Opinion of replacing Columbus Day with Native American Day

[Mechaman]

Don't really care, as long as I get the day off.

Although I must say I somewhat agree with this observation:

And then, why don't we have a day for every race of people?  It just gets silly at a certain point.

There are a lot of other oppressed people in American history who don't get federally recognized holidays.  You guys think St. Paddy's Day is federally recognized?  Or Oktoberfest?  How about Pulaski Day?  Cinco de Mayo? etc etc etc etc.

Seriously.

Note: Not saying that I really care either way about cultural holidays getting federal recognition, just stating that it's kind of a well non-issue.  If the argument is for more of these holidays, however, I'm not opposed to it.  I really don't like working.

[Mechaman]

No don't do it. Things don't need to change.

This thread is pretty out of touch with South Dakota.

Who is out of touch with South Dakota now?

South Dakota has like 3 Italian people and a decent Native American population so it's no surprise.  

But, in my opinion, either keep it Columbus Day or get rid of the holiday entirely.  Replacing it with Native American day seems to place the blame for American mistreatment of Native Americans on the feet of Christopher Columbus.  And then, why don't we have a day for every race of people?  It just gets silly at a certain point.

Columbus Day makes little sense considering that not only was he not the first person set to foot in the Americas, he was not even the first European; the Vikings were.

Anyway, Martin Luther King Day (which I support) honors the fight for African American rights.  The Native Americans were the first Americans.  They are the ones who have a the strongest case against "illegal aliens".  To this day, they are still persecuted.  On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, poverty is horrendous, and the life expectancy is similar to that of an African country.  In the wealthy US, that is downright shameful.  

Also, Congress must apologize for their destruction.  Congress has apologized for slavery, for Japanese internment, and for the overthrow of the Hawaiian queen.  It must apologize for the worst atrocity in US history, which is of course, what was done against the Native Americans.

Surely, the original people of our "free land, the greatest nation on Earth" are entitled to our respect.

From what I can recall, the US Government has never apologized for it's draft policies during the Civil War, has never apologized for the treatment of the native population of the Philippines after McKinley took it over, never apologized for inaction during the flooding of the Mississippi in the 1920's (the most untalked about natural calamity in American history that was that era's Katrina), has only given a very minimum apology for the behavior of abusive military in the Vietnam War (to which their initial reaction was disgusting), and has come nowhere near (though Fox News pundits claim differently) to apologizing to the world for the World Policeman status that the US now has.

So yes, the US Government doesn't have exactly that great of a record of "apologizing".