{"id":27564,"date":"2020-02-20T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-20T15:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27564"},"modified":"2020-02-20T09:07:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T15:07:00","slug":"state-holiday-honoring-native-americans-proposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27564","title":{"rendered":"State holiday honoring Native Americans proposed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day would replace the state holiday of Columbus Day under a bill considered Feb. 19 by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_20156\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-20156\" style=\"width: 200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"20156\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?attachment_id=20156\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/SenPansingBrooks_inline.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"297,445\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"senpansingbrooks_inline\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/SenPansingBrooks_inline.jpg\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-20156\" src=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/SenPansingBrooks_inline-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/SenPansingBrooks_inline-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/SenPansingBrooks_inline.jpg 297w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-20156\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>LB848, introduced by Lincoln Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, would designate the day to \u201crecognize the historic, cultural, and contemporary significance\u201d of Native Americans in Nebraska. The holiday would remain on the second Monday in October.<\/p>\n<p>South Dakota already has replaced Columbus Day with a holiday honoring indigenous people, she said, and a majority of states do not recognize Columbus Day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cColumbus did not set foot in Nebraska,\u201d Pansing Brooks said. \u201cHe did not set foot in North America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Larry Wright Jr., chairperson of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, testified in support of LB848. He said Columbus is unworthy of a holiday and that changing the name is long overdue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor so many years, others told our stories,\u201d Wright said. \u201cThe reality of Columbus\u2019 action upon indigenous people he encountered is well documented; rape, abuse, enslavement, murder and theft are not things to be honored.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Also speaking in support was Judi gaiashkibos, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs. She said indigenous people were the original cornhuskers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNebraska\u2019s indigenous people have inhabited this state for millennia,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are not, however, just historic artifacts or ghosts from the past. We are still here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Historian Margaret Jacobs also testified in support of the bill. She read excerpts from Columbus\u2019 journal in which he wrote that indigenous people were \u201csimple\u201d and that they would make good servants. Jacobs said changing the holiday\u2019s name is not disrespectful to Italian Americans, many of whom celebrate the man who was born in a city that only later became part of Italy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they were to learn the true history of Columbus, it\u2019s nothing they would be proud of,\u201d Jacobs said. \u201cI don\u2019t believe we should be celebrating this person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gio Portera testified against LB848. He said Columbus\u2019 accomplishments should be celebrated and that many of the accusations against him are untrue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe reputation of Columbus has suffered at the hands of special interest groups who use this 15th century renaissance navigator to further their 21st century political and social agenda,\u201d Portera said.<\/p>\n<p>Sam Troia also spoke against the bill. He said he supported a national holiday for indigenous people, but not as a replacement for Columbus Day.<\/p>\n<p>The committee took no immediate action on LB848.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Indigenous Peoples\u2019 Day would replace the state holiday of Columbus Day under a bill considered Feb. 19 by the Government, Military and Veterans Affairs Committee.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-27564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-military-and-veterans-affairs","tag-sen-patty-pansing-brooks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/LB848PansingBrooks2-19-20a.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27564"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27566,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27564\/revisions\/27566"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}