The following is an outline of significant dates and material used in the campaign to rename Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day in [your city here]:
January 30, 2018
Sent email and attachment to all City Council members. Note
February 6, 2018
Spoke at City Council meeting (during "public comment" period).
Listen to audio #1
Listen to audio #2
February 7, 2018
Sent email to all City Council members asking to meet and discuss the issue. None accepted.
February 17, 2018
Launched an informational website. (That website is now offline, but it's similar to this one, which you may copy.)
February 23, 2018
Launched a Facebook page to help promote the website and cause. (That page is now inactive, but here's a sample post).
February 25, 2018
Posted flyers on local bulletin boards.
March through October, 2018
Placed small ads a community newspaper (v1, v2, v3).
March 6, 2018
Spoke at second City Council meeting (during "public comment" period).
Listen to audio
March 12, 2018
City distributes a survey for "community" input.
March 12 - April 24, 2018
Email exchange with City's Communications Manager (much of which was also included in Staff Report below).
March 20, 2018
Spoke at third City Council meeting (during "public comment" period).
Listen to audio #1
Listen to audio #2
March 29, 2018
City issues Staff Report and schedules meeting for April 3.
April 3, 2018
City Council holds meeting. Listen to audios:
City Staff (Staff Report Overview)
Public Commenter #1
Public Commenter #2
Public Commenter #3 / Former City Councilor
City Councilor #1
City Councilor #2
City Mayor
City Councilor #3
City Mayor
Commenter #2 / Mayor / Councilor #3
April 7, 2018
Local newspaper reports on April 7th meeting.
View article
April 17, 2018
Spoke during City Council's public comment period.
Listen to audio
May 1, 2018
Spoke during City Council's public comment period.
Listen to audio
August 20, 2018
Sent email to all City Council members. No replies were received.
May 21, 2019
Spoke during City Council's public comment period.
Listen to audio
New Councilmember requests reconsideration of rename.
Listen to audio
June 17, 2019
Received email from Washoe Tribe.
June 18, 2019
Final City Council meeting.

Public comments:
Commenter 1 | Commenter 2 | Commenter 3 | Commenter 4 | Commenter 5 | Commenter 6 | Commenter 7

City Council discussion:
Councilor #1
Councilor #2
Councilor #3
Councilor #4
City Mayor
Councilor #3 / Councilor #4 / Mayor

City Council votes to rename Columbus Day
 
June 20, 2019
Local newspaper reports name change.
View article
October 2, 2019
Nearby city of Reno, Nevada renames Columbus Day.
View article

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is vehemently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."
-Schopenhauer
"Time makes more converts than reason."
-Thomas Paine, Founding Father
 
You'll likely find it useful to keep an online log of all communications and steps taken while renaming Columbus Day in your city/university/etc. This will help you, your City Council, and your community to review all the important information that's been presented, as well as any flawed information. This will likely help make the correct course of action obvious over time. Keeping a log will also help if anyone joins your effort, or if your initial efforts are ignored and someone wants to pick up where you left off. If necessary, you can blur/crop names and personal info from correspondence, audios, etc.
*If you ever decide to abandon your website/log, be sure to first archive it at a site like www.archive.today or web.archive.org for future reference.

IMPORTANT: The materials on this page are just placeholders, and are not licensed for re-distribution. They're intended to demonstrate how records were kept for one campaign to rename Columbus Day in one city. When launching your website, be sure to delete all the materials on this page, and replace with your own. If you're just getting started, you can temporarily replace this page with a simple "Coming Soon" page.
This initial correspondence mentions "Native American Day." However, it was later determined that "Indigenous Peoples' Day" is the more appropriate choice because:
1) It aligns with a 1977 proposal by a delegation of Indigenous nations to the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas.
2) It aligns with what 100+ other cities/states/universities have already done, and remaining consistent will make for an easier nationwide transition.
3) Since Indigenous people lived on this continent long before it was called America by Europeans, there's inherent conflict in the term "Native American."
4) The word "native" is often used to mean simply "born in a place." For example, everyone born in California might call themselves a California native. There's no such confusion with the word "indigenous."
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