Concord will cross out “Columbus Day” from three city ordinances and replace it with “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” after dozens showed up to urge the city to join other New Hampshire municipalities in changing the October holiday’s name.
After hearing nearly two hours of public testimony from more than 25 people, Concord City Council passed the change to three ordinances governing city staff, parking and construction noise with a voice vote, after a motion from Ward 2 Councilor Erle Pierce to table the change failed.
The majority of those who spoke up during public comment supported the change, with a few exceptions. Topics of testimony ranged from Columbus’ acts and reputation in his lifetime, to the history and justifications for colonization in the United States, to how history is memorialized in Concord through place names and plaques.
Councilors heard from many high school students, including a contingent of high schoolers from Proctor Academy in Andover. Some said that they had been taught a mythologized version of history that painted Christopher Columbus as a hero and Indigenous people as obstacles in the way of westward expansion.
Paul and Denise Pouliot of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People testified about the impact of changing Columbus Day for them as modern Indigenous people in New Hampshire, noting that Columbus represented the “doctrine of discovery,” which justified the invasion of Native lands by Christian imperial powers.
They also discussed the conversations happening around Concord’s Hannah Duston monument, which memorializes a New Hampshire woman who killed and scalped 10 Native Americans who captured her in 1697. Paul Pouliot said that the couple had not supported the removal of the statute, but instead are participating in a committee that will re-imagine a site with more complex historical context.
“As a people, its important to have truth and education,” Denise Pouliot said. “As a nation, our history has been morphed to promote a dominant culture and dominant societal ways. Cultures like ours have been minimalized, typically for them to maintain their economic goals.”
Ward 7 Councilor Keith Nyhan asked the couple whether they would be opposed to making the second Monday in October a cultural heritage day, or naming another day Indigenous People’s Day. Paul Pouliot responded that this initiative was part of a national movement to change the narrative around this particular holiday.
“It’s important for Indigenous peoples to be noticed, and to have the genocide of Columbus recognized for what it is,” Denise Pouliot said.
Therapist Stephanie Vazzano, who described herself as “super Italian,” said that Columbus Day negatively affected her Indigenous patients with histories of trauma. “I have treated several Native people and Indigenous people with complex [post-traumatic stress disorder] and the Columbus Day name is really hurtful, it’s one of the things that can make their symptoms worse.”
Hopkinton student Callie Bryant said she was proud to be from a community that recognized Indigenous people with a holiday, which the town voted to do in 2018. “I think living in a community that does recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I feel so lucky that in that I am educated about the true history around Columbus Day.”
Some opposed the change or proposed alternatives to Indigenous People’s Day. Roy Schweiker suggested a day honoring cultural exchange to avoid alienating refugees, who he compared to the early Pilgrims who fled religious persecution in Europe for the United States.
Concord resident Dennis Soucy said he feared that re-naming Columbus Day was part of a broader movement that would lead to defacing military statutes or removing veterans’ monuments.
“When is this going to end? We have to put a stop to it,” Soucy said. “Every time you turn around they want to take something away from you.”
Other public testimony on Monday pointed out that the council had little authority over a holiday that exists in both state and federal law. Concord resident Donald Jewell, who said his grandmother was Abenaki, said it was better to change the holiday on the level where it had originally been created.
When public comment closed, most councilors expressed support for changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Ward 10 Councilor Zandra Rice Hawkins, who had initially proposed changing the name of the holiday in September, said that the council’s decision was a local one.
“This isn’t a national issue, this is a Concord, Penacook, Abenaki, Wabanaki issue and that’s why I think it’s really important that we acknowledge that and move forward,” she said. “I can understand that for some people, it’s hard to make that change, but there’s a whole generation ready to embrace that.”
Ward 2 Councilor Erle Pierce put forward a motion to table the decision, to give the city a chance to look into the financial cost of creating a different holiday to celebrate Indigenous people. “I don’t think anything we do tonight will fix the atrocities that took place,” he said. That motion failed.
Ward 1 Councilor Brett Todd said he supported the name change, noting that he said the Abenaki word “Penacook” regularly, and said calls for broader holidays celebrating cultural exchange or awareness reminded him of “All Lives Matter,” a common rhetorical response to Black Lives Matter. “I think all lives do matter, but that kind of misses the point, the point is to focus on a particular group that has suffered.”
At-Large Councilors Amanda Grady-Sexton and Byron Champlin both supported the change but said the council should not stop at this one small symbolic step.
Nyhan voted against the ordinance change, saying he supported instituting an Indigenous Peoples’ Day and doing away with Columbus Day but that he wanted to change Columbus Day to more all-encompassing day that would celebrate cultural heritage or awareness.
Many of those who had filled Council Chambers for the public hearing on Indigenous Peoples’ Day filed out of the at 9 p.m., before other issues were discussed or any votes were taken.
At-Large Councilor Nathan Fennessy said he supported the name change but lamented the gulf between the volume of public input on Indigenous Peoples’ Day versus on redistricting efforts.
“Everyone left when we started talking about redistricting, which I would argue is maybe the most important thing we do, aside from setting a budget, because what we do today with respect to redistricting affects how people are represented for the next 10 years,” Fennessy said.