By: David P. Griscom
Seattle is quickly becoming the capitol of the American Left. The Seattle City Council has voted to make the 2nd Monday of October “Indigenous People’s Day” rather than Columbus Day, which Washington State already doesn’t celebrate. This movement was a huge victory for Native American rights groups who see Columbus as a symbol of the beginning of years of horrific oppression at the hands of Europeans.
When Christopher Columbus arrived in North America there were around 10 million indigenous people living in the United States. The current numbers of Native American in the United States is around 3 million. The English, Spanish, French, and in time the United States, enacted policies of official and unofficial violence against Native Americans. Today the Native American Reservations are among the poorest areas in the US and in some cases the world.
While the declaration of the new holiday is primarily symbolic, it also showcases the presence of a very strong left in Seattle that has been growing in power. Seattle has a socialist member on their city council. Councilwoman Kshama Sawant is a member of the Socialist Alternative Party and is the first Socialist to be elected in Seattle in over a hundred years. Securing a fifteen dollar an hour minimum wage was a major part of her campaign which has now been realized in the city.
Photo Credit: Andrew E. Larsen, Flickr Commons