Columbus Day or Indigenous People’s Day? South Lake Tahoe City Council to consider name change | TahoeDailyTribune.com
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Columbus Day or Indigenous People’s Day? South Lake Tahoe City Council to consider name change

MORE INFORMATION Click here to view the agenda item.

A little more than a year after a previous proposal died due to lack of action, South Lake Tahoe City Council on Tuesday will consider a resolution changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day.

The item made its way onto the agenda after resident Reid Reichardt asked council in May to reconsider the name change. Councilors Devin Middlebrook and Jason Collin supported bringing back a resolution to formally change the day’s name.

A previous push by Reichardt to rename the holiday in April 2018 failed due to a lack of action by City Council, which had three different members at the time.



Some council members at the time pointed to an informal survey that found significant opposition to the name change, the Tribune reported.

Reichardt — who has advocated in favor of the name change, going so far as to create a website called KeepTahoeTrue.org — said at the time that council should ignore the survey because it lacked important context.



KeepTahoeTrue.org highlights Columbus’ participation in the slave trade and other atrocities as the primary reasons for renaming the holiday. Reichardt and others argue the name change is an attempt to correct “mis-written history.”

If City Council adopts the resolution South Lake Tahoe would join 121 other entities, including states, cities and universities, that celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

City Council’s meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 18, at the Lake Tahoe Airport, 1901 Lisa Maloff Way (Airport Road).


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