West Cook News

An analysis of 37 west suburban school district calendars found just one-- Hinsdale High School District 86-- was in session Monday, Oct. 10, the official federal holiday to celebrate Italian explorer Christopher Columbus.

The rest took the day off, mostly to pay tribute to Columbus, who first earned the distinction of a national day of observance in 1892, 400 years after his landing in America in 1492. 

That landing spurred centuries of exploration on the American continents, as well as the settlements there that became the United States of America. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt finally made Columbus Day a federal holiday in 1934. But it was a general holiday in Chicago long previous on account of the city's large Italian population, whose patriotism it was created to recognize.

Most west suburban school districts analyzed-- 23 of the 37 (62 percent)--  acknowledged on their school calendars that Oct. 11 was Columbus Day. 

An additional six-- Bloomingdale 13, Willowbrook Gower 62, Hinsdale 181, La Grange Highlands 106, Lyons 204, and Berwyn South 100-- said their schools were closed for Columbus Day, but that they would ask students to also honor "Indigenous Peoples."

"Indigenous Peoples" is a play on words referring to the Indians who lived in America before European settlers arrived. The plural of person isn't "peoples" but "people," an irregular plural noun like "geese" or "women."

The calendars of four districts analyzed-- Hillside 93, Oak Park 97, Berwyn 98 and Westmont 101-- said their schools would be closed, not to honor Columbus but only to honor so-called "Indigenous Peoples." 

Hillside 93 re-named Columbus Day "Indigenous Day." Oak Park 97 called it "Indgenous Peoples'" day, showing possession.

Three districts-- River Forest 90, Downers Grove 99 and Villa Park Salt Creek 48-- just reported their schools would be closed, and that students would honor no one.

In 1992, on the 500th anniversary of Columbus' arrival in America, Chicago Tribune columnist William Pfaff wrote that "revisionist judgments on Columbus that have soured the observance of this anniversary. He has, by many, been turned into a figure of aggression and genocide. The larger argument made is that the Western tradition itself is oppressive, and that Columbus, its agent, was a willing accomplice in a criminal affair."

"It is possible to believe this only if one totally lacks historical imagination, or acquaintance with 15th Century European assumptions," Pfaff wrote. "It judges Columbus by an anachronistic 20th Century American political standard, itself narrower, and more naive, than the standards of Columbus` time. It commits the elementary error of deriving intentions from results, as if Columbus and his contemporaries were capable of imagining or intending the titanic consequences of their actions."

Columbus arrival in America triggered "a collision of civilizations, with victory to the one which was technologically and intellectually advanced, possessing total confidence in its beliefs and its destiny," Pfaff wrote.

On Oct. 8, President Joe Biden proclaimed Oct. 11, 2021 as "Indigenous People's Day," stating that "we honor America’s first inhabitants and... Tribal Nations."

On Columbus Day itself, Biden issued a statement that declared European exploration of America "ushered in a wave of devastation" including "violence" and displacement."

The Illinois Indian confederation, after whom the state is named, lived in the Chicagoland area and across northern Illinois in the 1600's, where they were in a state of constant war with the Dakota Sioux, Fox and Iroquois tribes, rivals who raided their villages and tortured and murdered their members. 

The Illinois were eventually driven out of northern Illinois by the Potawatomi, who were themselves driven out of Michigan by the Iroquois.

An alliance with French settlers helped the Illinois Indians survive, though they eventually all left the state in the 1830's.

In May, Cook County Commissioner Stanley Moore demanded Indian tribes “acknowledge their role in the rich history of Black slaves" before he would support a measure to change Columbus Day in the county to "Indigenous Peoples Day."

Moore also claimed he is a descendant of the Choctaw Indians, who once lived in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Louisiana-- and that he had demanded tribal membership and a share of casino profits but was denied.

Does you west suburban school district celebrate Columbus Day?

District	School?	Columbus Day	"Indigenous Peoples"	Neither	Both
Addison 4	OFF	X
Bellwood 88	OFF	X
Berkeley 87	OFF	X
Berwyn 98	OFF		X
Berwyn South 100	OFF				X
Bloomingdale 13	OFF				X
Butler 53	OFF	X
Cicero 99	OFF	X
Downers Grove 58	OFF	X
Downers Grove 99	OFF			X
Elmhurst 205	OFF	X
Elmwood Park 401	OFF	X
Franklin Park 84	OFF	X
Gower 62	OFF				X
Hillside 93	OFF		X
Hinsdale 181	OFF				X
Hinsdale 86	ON
Komarek 94	OFF	X
LaGrange 102	OFF	X
LaGrange 105	OFF	X
Lagrange Highlands 106	OFF				X
Leyden 212	OFF	X
Lyons 103	OFF	X
Lyons 204	OFF				X
Mannheim 83	OFF	X
Maywood-Melrose Park 89	OFF	X
Morton 201	OFF	X
Oak Park 97	OFF		X
Pleasantdale 107	OFF	X
Proviso 209	OFF	X
River Forest 90	OFF			X
Riverside 96	OFF	X
Rosemont 78	OFF	X
Salt Creek 48	OFF			X
Union Ridge 86	OFF	X
Western Springs 101	OFF	X
Westmont 201	OFF		X

Source: School web sites