Shifting Celebrations

However, all this began to change during the 1960's, Lively says. "Instead of [Columbus as] this great hero, the 60s made us more sensitive to other points of view. There became [greater] awareness of minorities."

"Columbus Day has become slightly contentious," Lively says. "Should we consider Columbus a hero when he was the one who, some would say, began the demise of the Native American population?"

This dilemma has led to a shift away from traditional Columbus Day celebrations in recent years and a greater focus upon the experiences of Native Americans.

The City Council of Berkeley, California changed the city's annual Columbus Day holiday to a "Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People," in 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus' landing in the New World.

Celebration, "which included music, cultural presentations, a procession that included temporary art installations and performances en route and opening and closing ceremonies," focused on Native Americans rather than the now-controversial explorer, according to a memo released by the city.

Like other cities across the nation, Boston has been party to this shift, and many of this weekend's events represent celebrations of the Native American culture rather than Columbus.

Advertised as "Say No to Columbus Day" on posters throughout Boston, "A Life-Affirming, Anti-Racism Alternative to Columbus Day--A Day of Truth and Intercultural Solidarity" will be held Monday from 4 to 8:30 p.m. at 4 Danforth Street in Jamaica Plains.

The event is co-sponsored by the United American Indians of New England and Community Change, "a multi-cultural, anti-racism organization located in Boston," according to James "Jim" K. Kilpatrick, a Community Change volunteer member and the event's coordinator.

"Its headquarters and anti-racism library have occupied a small space in downtown Boston for about 20 years now," Kilpatrick says.

"This intercultural alternative to [Columbus Day] celebrates and honors the indigenous people whom Columbus and the [other] European explorers killed [and] honors their survival, values, and beliefs," he says.

The idea for the intercultural event grew out of a similar, but smaller, event held last year in his living room," Kilpatrick says.

"We sat around watching a video...about Columbus' contact with the Indian people," he says. "We also had a moment of acknowledgement for the people whose lives were lost due to the contact of Columbus with the Indians. [Then] Community Change took it as an idea to expand on."

According to Kilpatrick, one highlight of Monday's event will be speeches by the co-leaders of the United American Indians of New England--Moomanum, a Wampanoag Indian, and Mahtowin, a Lakota native.

Kilpatrick himself is not of Native American descent but describes himself as "a child of the '60s."