Concord City Council Removes Columbus From City Holiday

CONCORD, NH — By voice vote, the Concord City Council agreed to change the name of the holiday for the second Monday in October from Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day for city workers.

Parking and noise regulation as well as signage will also be amended by the decision. The change was approved after about 90 minutes of testimony from dozens of people who attended Monday’s public hearing. Councilors also heard from a number of residents and organizations by email. A motion to table the proposal was also defeated before the final vote.

While there was a mix of emails sent to councilors, most of the people who spoke on the issue in person supported changing the name. A good portion of the testimony also came from people who did not live in the city. About a dozen residents though spoke in favor of the change while half a dozen residents spoke against it or made alternative proposals.

ALSO READ:

• Concord Ward Redistricting, Columbus Day Public Hearings Monday
• Concord Could Change Columbus Day To Indigenous Peoples Day

Community Comments In Support Of The Change

Jeannie Holt said she wanted to listen to both sides of the debate but added she supported her Native brothers and sisters in their grief and was cognizant of their resilience. She called it a good forum “to share vibrant and diverse culture” and understood that some Italians were proud of Columbus. But, she was also puzzled why anyone would want to celebrate someone who was so cruel and, in his own time, was considered a criminal. She added, while she was not responsible for the atrocities of the past, she was for atonement.

Asma Elhuni, the politics director of Rights and Democracy NH, who lived in Ward 9, called Columbus a “violent historic figure” and also wondered why anyone would want to celebrate the holiday. She suggested choosing another day to honor Italians. Elhuni added no one had ever made amends for the taking of native lands.

Stacey Brown, the Ward 5 city councilor-elect, also rose in support of the proposal. She said, while campaigning, she met many voters and residents who wanted the change.

“It’s a small act with a powerful message,” she said.

Lidia Yen of Change for Concord said true history was being censored and Columbus was being featured as a hero to students. The real story, she added, was not being shared and this caused harm to ancestors.

“We are not given the truth about what they endured or what they are still enduring today,” she said. “Celebrating him is the same as celebrating genocide.”

Yen also rattled off a list of communities in the state that already made the change including Hopkinton and Dover.

Rose Marie Lanier, a longtime resident and past Concord TV political television host, said it was long past time to recognize the people who have lived on the land and how they lived on the land, for thousands of years. She said praise of Columbus led to one culture being considered superior over the other. Native Americans, she said, had trade groups from one coast to the other. The “actual history” needed to be taught while everyone also learned to respect each other, she said. The name change would be the first step to honoring them, she said.

Cathryn Corkery, the chapter director of Sierra Club, who lives in Penacook and was of Italian and Irish descent, blamed Columbus for creating the slave trade. She said 3 million people were killed due to wars, mining, and other reasons during his time. If he were alive today, she said, Columbus’ actions would be compared to the ethnic cleansings in Bosnia, Idi Amin in Uganda, and Pol Pot in Cambodia.

“Today,” she said, “Columbus would be in jail or in hiding. He would not have a holiday.” Columbus never came to Concord and why can’t we change?”

The org, she said, shared many of the values and wanted to promote healing.

Steven Kidder spoke for the name change as did Dave Williams a Concord High School student whose grandmother was Native American. He said it was important for everyone to embrace change and “not stay in our old ways.”

Paul and Denise Pouliot, speakers of the Pennacook-Abenaki people, both of Alton, said there may have been thousands of Pennacook Abenaki living in villages in the area before the 1600s. Paul Pouliot said the Europeans had made plans to conquer and gather resources from the country. Columbus, he said, was just a man of his time. Denise Pouliot said natives were here for at least 13,000 years. Paul Pouliot said the land of New Hampshire was always being split up between royals of the time period. The barbarism of Columbus, he said, was not arguable. Abenaki, he said, fought to protect their families. They said they had worked to preserve the Hannah Duston memorial — but they would like to have both sides of history told. Paul Pouliot also thanked the students for attending the meeting. He said the Legislature tried to change the law a number of times but could not get anywhere. If the name change was approved, they said, the city would get a tribal flag to use during celebrations.

A number of Proctor Academy, a prep school in Andover, students also testified, including many who supported the change. One said they liked the idea of an all peoples day while another, who was from Louisiana, said that a big problem was ignorance and moving away from it.

Opposition And Alternative Ideas

Roy Schweiker proposed a neutral change similar to what was done at the Custer memorial where it was changed to Little Big Horn — not Crazy Horse or keeping it named after Custer. He said there were other ethnicities who came to America, too, like the Irish and Vikings. Schweiker suggested renaming the day to Hemisphere Cultural Exchange Day.

“That is what this day should be,” he said. “We should not be picking winners or losers, or saying Columbus was a bad guy.”

Pilgrims today, he added, would be called refugees.

“Calling them murderers and so forth was really not appropriate,” he said. “Concord, unlike all these other towns, is supposed to be welcoming.”

Schweiker said the Abenaki were not the first to the Concord area and they took the land from someone else, demanding that others live under their rules, and that was the actual history.

Charlie Russell, who lives on Columbus Avenue, said the issue was a state law issue, not a council issue while acknowledging the personnel code affected hundreds of city employees. Instead, the Legislature should really approve the change that dealt with something 500 years old, he said. He also said Native Americans were not without criticism. In the mid-1700s, early Concord settlers had blockades and garrisons to protect them from Indian attacks. Indians, he added, did not always get along either. Concord Hospital has a memorial honoring a number of residents who were massacred by them. Indian wars, he said, went on in New Hampshire from the 1690s to 1763 — including massacres in Oyster River and Deerfield. Ignoring those past misdeeds was a mistake, he said.

“Let’s consider all aspects (of history),” Russell said. “I hope this doesn’t end up as which group has been more victimized or more less-misdeeds than the other … let’s take the high road — let’s call it All Peoples Day. This shouldn’t be as viewed as Italians versus the Indians.”

Ward 10 Councilor Zandra Rice Hawkins challenged Russell, a longtime city Democrat, to name his favorite positive representation of indigenous culture in the city. He countered she was probably asking because there were not a lot. When asked if he attended any of the city's multicultural festivals, he said he had not. But, having lived in the city since the 1970s, he knew all kinds of people, from different races and ethnicities.

Dennis Soucy said he was also opposed to the change. He stood against the “wokeness” of things happening both locally and nationally. Soucy spoke about his own family’s history, moving to American from Canada in the early 1900s, and growing up in the mill area of Manchester.

“If it is not broken, don’t fix it,” he said. “When is this going to end? We have to put a stop to it. Every time you turn around, they want to take something from you. Why can’t we just love each other … Why can’t we forget and forgive?”

Soucy also said he was concerned about what would come next. Are they going to tear down memorials to veterans, he asked. He also asked why statues, monuments, and bridges named in honor of President Lyndon Johnson, U.S. Sen. Robert Byrd, and George Wallace, all Democrats and all racists, remained.

Rice Hawkins said she would like to speak to Soucy at a later date about some of his concerns.

Ken Georgevits, a resident for nearly 40 years, opened by saying, “I helped to elect you; half this room did not.” He said assigning blame to hundreds of years ago to 21st Century rules to 15th Century norms was a mistake. Changing a name or taking down a monument would not make everything right, he said, it will only make discord today. Georgevits also called a change self-righteous.

“But no matter how woke you try to be, it is what it is ... but don’t try to make yourselves feel better and claim a victory for just changing a name,” he said. “You’ve just wasted the citizens’ of Concord time, (people) who elected you to solve today’s problems not something from 1492.”

A Republican, Georgevits said it was probably the first time he and Russell had ever agreed on anything.

Donald Jewell spoke on behalf of his father who was born in Canada and whose mother was full-blooded Abenaki. He said family members understood the loss and what indigenous people had suffered.

“I just think that I know how they suffered and I know from his own personal testimony,” he said.

On the other hand, history, he said, was important and it was important to keep it in context. Columbus, he said, discovered America but also exploited the natives — something that was not something to be proud of. To take something away to establish something else, long ago … “I’m not sure the message is right; there are pros and cons … sometimes, what does good does harm. Sometimes we need to accept what is there and make peace with it.”

Council Discussion

Outgoing Ward 6 Councilor Linda Kenison said she believed the system was broken and was only just beginning to understand her own white privilege. She said she did not feel guilty about it but it was her personal responsibility to educate herself. Kenison said the name change was the first step.

“It’s going to be a lifelong process of self-education,” she said, adding she would vote for the change.

Ward 4 Councilor Karen McNamara said invalidating people’s feelings and wrongs did make her and others feel guilty. But there was the chance to educate and she did not want to reinjure anyone who might be upset with the name staying the same.

“I think we need to get this right,” she said.

Ward 3 Jennifer Kretovic also said she was supporting the change and pointed to her own children going through the school system and understanding there were other cultures. This, she said, was just a small change the council could make. Kretovic said it was about “changing the narrative” and that was the city’s culture. Kretovic also challenged Ward 10 Councilor’s Zandra Rice Hawkins insinuating there were not any monuments or names acknowledging our history. They were, she said, all over the city.

Amanda Grady Sexton, an at-large councilor, also supported the change and said more could be done, too, to discuss the issue and acknowledged the need to do more.

Ward 2 Council Erle Pierce requested to table the motion and after it was seconded, he explained it was a federal and state issue. He said the council was being asked to look through a politically correct lens from more than 500 years ago. It would not fix the atrocities of the past, he said. Pierce called it “a neighborhood argument.” Instead, tabling it would allow the creation of another holiday which might have a financial discussion as part of that discussion, he added.

Rice Hawkins asked to read remarks from Ward 5 Councilor Rob Werner, who was also in support of the change but could not attend the meeting. She also said, at the polls, she heard from only one person who said it was a national issue and should not be dealt with by the council.

Ward 7 Councilor Keith Nyhan seconded the motion to table and called it a legitimate concern to discuss. He supported recognizing indigenous people and also striking Columbus from the holiday. Nyhan said the day after Thanksgiving, which city workers already have off, could be named for indigenous people instead.

Pierce agreed with Nyhan’s comment.

Kenison said she would not support the motion and questioned the procedure to allow it.

Byron Champlin, another at-large councilor, requested to move the question.

The motion to table was defeated, 12 to 2.

Champlin, speaking in favor of the proposal, said it was time to make the change.

Brent Todd, the Ward 1 city councilor, who represents Penacook, agreed and said he thought about the name every day since he was from the council.

Fennessey said he would also be voting in favor of the change, too. But he noted that redistricting, a bigger issue, was something the community needed to pay attention to, too.

Nyhan said he was voting against the proposal because he thought a proposal that brought the community together while also removing Columbus Day and supporting indigenous people.

By a voice vote, the proposal was approved, with at least three audible no votes.

Got a news tip? Send it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube.com channel or Rumble.com channel. Follow the New Hampshire Patch Politics Twitter account @NHPatchPolitics for all our campaign coverage.