Monday, Oct. 13, is Indigenous Peoples Day/Columbus Day holiday. Columbus Day has been celebrated as a national holiday since 1971. Catholics celebrated that day for many years before that because of Christopher Columbus being a Catholic celebrity. It honored his coming to shore on Oct. 12, in 1492 AD. 
    
As time went on, we learned that this landing was not good news for the indigenous peoples who were already living in the Americas. Many of them died because of illnesses they had never been exposed to and therefore had no acquired immunity. Others were murdered, exploited as slaves, and pillaged by those who came from Spain and other countries. Later, they would be uprooted from their homes and put into concentration camps (reservations) and would experience terrible poverty, wars and oppression.
    
Because of these things, the day on which we celebrate Columbus Day is also Indigenous Peoples Day, so that we honor both the European discovery of this new continent but also honor the sufferings and struggles of the people already living here.
    
History is always both good and bad news, depending on who you might be.