Los Angeles is celebrating its first Indigenous People's Day in lieu of Columbus Day. The city council voted last year to eliminate Columbus Day as an official city holiday, citing the explorer's negative effects on the native population. Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, who is Native American himself, says he feels that an injustice has finally been corrected.
"It became clear to me that the city with the largest Native American population of any other city in the United States, ... that we needed to take action and we needed to act boldly and advance the conversation across the country," O'Farrell said.
Performances and demonstrations are scheduled in what is being billed as one of the largest Indigenous Peoples Day events in the country. O'Farrell says those people who might be upset by the city replacing Columbus Day should research their history.
"Learn the facts of history and realize that Indigenous Peoples Day is not at the expense of anyone, but Indigenous people have lived at the expense and survived at the expense of what Christopher Columbus brought to the Western Hemisphere," O'Farrell said.
The Black Eye Peas and the Native American rock group Redbone are scheduled to headline a concert at Grand Park across from city hall.
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