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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Government offices, state and federal courts and libraries throughout the Southland will be closed today for Columbus Day.
There will be no U.S. Mail delivery, like for all federal holidays.
Most banks are also expected to be closed.
However, Los Angeles Unified School District schools will be open. Metro buses and trains will run on a regular schedule, along with Metrolink trains. Stores, too, will be open as usual.
The second Monday in October in Los Angeles is Indigenous Peoples Day under an ordinance approved in 2017 by the Los Angeles City Council, which replaced Columbus Day as a holiday on the city calendar.
Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, a member of the Wyandotte Nation and who led the effort to make the change, said when the inaugural holiday was celebrated in 2018 that he believed the historical record on Christopher Columbus was plain for everyone to see.
“It's time to no longer deny our past but reclaim our history because it's all there for anyone who wants to see it,'' O'Farrell said.
President Joe Biden on Friday issued the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples Day.
“For generations, federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace Native people and eradicate Native cultures,'' Biden wrote in the Indigenous Peoples Day proclamation.
“Today, we recognize Indigenous peoples' resilience and strength as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society.''
In a separate proclamation involving Columbus Day, Biden praised the role of Italian Americans in U.S. society, but also referenced the violence and harm Columbus and other explorers of the age brought about on the Americas.
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