After well over an hour of debate, the Brunswick Town Council on Monday adopted a resolution recognizing the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day.
There was confusion Monday about whether the proposal included replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.
Columbus Day is a federal holiday, which the council has no authority to change, thus the two holidays would coexist, at least in Brunswick.
The resolution states that the council wishes to recognize and honor the Wabanaki, a confederation of five principal tribes — the Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquaddy, Abenaki and Penobscot, and other indigenous peoples — “to better reflect the experiences of native peoples and to hold in esteem their roots, history and contributions.”
Many members of the MidCoast Indigenous Awareness Group spoke in favor of the resolution. The group brought the issue to the attention of the town’s Human Rights Task Force and helped draft the resolution.
Camilla Beale of East Brunswick said she’s had a “heartfelt need to come to peace and understanding with my own ancestors, some of whom traded right here in the early 1600s.”
“I wonder how many have learned about some of the consequences of European settlement for this land’s original inhabitants; the bloody wars that happened right here in this area in the 1600s, or the fact that from 1616 to 1690, it’s said that over 90 percent of Wabanaki died as a result of exposure to illnesses for which they had no immunity, as well as because of bloodshed,” Beale said.
“Our hope is that celebrating a holiday renamed Indigenous Peoples Day will contribute to a more accurate and complete knowledge of our shared history, one that could only benefit all of us — our children and grandchildren — while also promoting justice and healing,” she said.
There was also a contingent of students from Brunswick High School attending the meeting, including Elina Woolever, the student liaison serving on the Brunswick School Board.
“We have all as students studied the history of the Native Americans and our nation as a whole year after year, and I think the majority of the student body of all Brunswick schools would welcome an opportunity to recognize and celebrate the indigenous peoples that have played such a vital role in that history,” she said.
Some who spoke Monday, however, didn’t want to see an indigenous peoples day share Columbus Day.
Richard Fisco said he thinks it’s good to acknowledge the indigenous people, “however, I don’t like the aspect of it which is antagonistic to Christopher Columbus. It’s part of the trendy liberal attempt to improve our lives, which we’re seeing a lot of these days.”
Jennifer Johnson told the council she’s not against the indigenous day, “but it appears to me that everybody across the United States, Maine included, wants to rewrite whatever they want. If they don’t like it, they want to change it. You cannot tear down monuments, you cannot change the name of the day and make it better.”
“We can’t make everybody feel good,” she added. “It’s Columbus Day. Period.”
Penobscot Nation tribal ambassador Maulian Dana Smith said the celebration of Columbus Day is a falsehood, in part, because Christopher Columbus didn’t discover a new world, as there were already people living in the Western Hemisphere.
Columbus can be studied as a historical figure who made contributions, she said. He was brought to court for crimes against humanity and had the mindset to exterminate a race of people, “and that is not something worth celebrating.”
“This isn’t an issue of political correctness,” she said. “This is an issue that goes much, much deeper. Symbols mean things, monuments mean things, statutes mean something. This holiday means something and for indigenous people it means a painful reminder that we were supposed to be exterminated.”
Smith continued: “Things like this are important steps that we can all take together to unite, to move forward and to be comfortable in our separate yet shared realities and to really grow and progress as a country.”
Brunswick joins Belfast, Bangor and Orono by recognizing the second Monday of October as Indigenous Peoples Day. Portland’s city council unanimously voted to recognize Indigenous Peoples Day the same day as Brunswick.
dmoore@timesrecord.com
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