After a pandemic-borne interruption, the Joint Civic Committee for Italian Americans hosted its annual Columbus Day parade last Monday to a crowd estimated at 20,000 people according to an AP report. But since they last marched along State Street in 2019, the political ground has shifted underneath them. This year, President Joe Biden recognized Indigenous.
Drum beats and incantations rang out Monday morning in Pottawattomie Park while Marissa Garcia, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, performed a healing dance called a “jingle dance” in a traditional dress she made herself. Garcia was among a crowd of more than 50 people who gathered to celebrate and support the.
Monday s federal holiday dedicated to Christopher Columbus is highlighting the ongoing divide between those who view the explorer as a representative of Italian American history and others horrified by an annual tribute that ignores native people whose lives and culture were forever changed by colonialism.