An Act to Establish an Indigenous Peoples Day in Massachusetts (S.2027 / H.3191)

Tony Palomba Past Actions Comments Off on An Act to Establish an Indigenous Peoples Day in Massachusetts (S.2027 / H.3191)

We need your help to pass the bill to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in Massachusetts.

With just two weeks to go in the regular legislative session, we are reaching out to folks who live in the district of  Rep. Steve Owens, who sits on the House Committee on Steering, Policy and Scheduling, where the bill to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day landed last Tuesday.
That bill, called An Act to Establish an Indigenous Peoples Day in Massachusetts (S.2027 / H.3191) has been a top legislative priority for Indigenous leaders in Massachusetts for many years. It enjoys broad-based support from groups like Mass Peace Action, MaIndigenousAgenda.org and the Native American Indian Center of Boston.
Vermont, Maine, many other states, and at least 23 cities and towns in Massachusetts have already switched from celebrating Columbus (a mass murderer and enslaver of Native people, according to his own diaries, and the contemporaneous account of his chronicler, Bartolome de las Casas) to Indigenous Peoples Day.
Now, faith based groups and racial justice groups as well as individual supporters across the Commonwealth are mobilizing to push the bill over the finish line.
Your help is needed!
Please take a moment today to call or write Rep. Owens, and ask him to help move the IPD bill forward immediately with a positive vote from the Steering, Policy and Scheduling Committee. If he replies, please let us know.
Please call or write to him and urge him to move the bill forward today!

Rep. Steven Owens: Steven.Owens@mahouse.gov / (617) 722-2090

Thank you, so much.
-David Detmold
member, Mass Peace Action Indigenous Solidarity Working Group
coordinator, changethemassflag.com
Montague
P.S. Send an automated letter in support to key legislators here:
Talking points:

The law, if passed, will replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in MA. Changing the second Monday in October to Indigenous Peoples Day would acknowledge the harmful impact of celebrating Columbus as a hero. Historical accounts prove that wherever he went, Columbus and his men murdered and enslaved Indigenous People. The repercussions continue to be keenly felt even today in Massachusetts.

Indigenous Peoples Day would replace something negative with something positive – an increased awareness of Indigenous Peoples and a celebration of Indigenous resilience and survival, in Massachusetts and throughout the Americas.

A victory for Indigenous People would be a victory for all people of color in Massachusetts, who still experience the racism and violence that was first visited upon the Indigenous People of the Americas by Columbus and his crew.

Vermont, Maine, and many other states have already made the switch from Columbus to Indigenous Peoples Day. So have two dozen cities and towns in Massachusetts.

You don’t need to be an expert on this bill. Just speak from your heart and encourage Rep. Owens to support this long stalled racial justice bill for the Commonwealth.

We want to honor the Native people of this land, rather than honoring the slave trader Columbus, in our public schools, and in our cities and towns.

Thanks!

Jennifer

she, her, hers
Living and working on the unceded land of the Pequosette Band of the Massachusett Tribe