[2] The roots of the holiday can be traced back to discussions and propositions regarding instituting it as a replacement for Columbus Day that took place in 1977 during The International NGO Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas in Geneva, Switzerland.

[citation needed] It was to include replicas of Columbus's ships sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge and reenacting their "discovery" of America.

[11] It promoted the idea that Columbus's "discovery" of inhabited lands and the subsequent European colonization of them had resulted in the genocide of thousands of Indigenous peoples because of the decisions which were made by colonial and national governments.

The city symbolically renamed Columbus Day as "Indigenous Peoples Day" beginning in 1992 to protest the historical conquest of North America by Europeans, and to call attention to the losses suffered by the Native American peoples and their cultures through diseases, warfare, massacres, and forced assimilation.

[14][15] Get Lost (Again) Columbus, an opera by a Native American composer, White Cloud Wolfhawk, was produced that day.

[20][21][22] At least 14 states do not celebrate Columbus Day (Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin), as well as Washington, DC; South Dakota officially celebrates Native American Day instead.

[33] This bill was led by Councilmember David Grosso (I-At Large) and must undergo congressional approval to become permanent.

[citation needed] Although it is not a federal holiday under US law, the Biden Administration has formally recognized Indigenous Peoples Day.

[34][35][36] Numerous efforts in North America have honored Native American people as part of Columbus Day, or by designating two holidays for the same date.

In 2020, President Donald Trump criticized Indigenous Peoples' Day at a campaign rally in Michigan, calling it an example of how "the radical left is eradicating our history".

[54] In 2022, the Washington Examiner published a column calling for the holiday's end, saying that Indigenous peoples attacked and conquered each other's land.