Indigenous Peoples' Day 2027

The same Monday, a different meaning

Indigenous Peoples' Day falls on the second Monday in October, deliberately sharing the date of the federal Columbus Day. It is not a separate day off; it is the name a growing number of states, cities and institutions give that Monday to honor Native Americans, Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians rather than Christopher Columbus. Because the federal holiday remains Columbus Day by law, post offices close, the Federal Reserve takes the day off and federal agencies shut down regardless of what a state calls it. Whether state offices and schools close depends on the state — Pew Research Center counts 17 states plus the District of Columbia with a holiday honoring Native peoples on the second Monday in October, while about 30 states still recognize Columbus Day in some form.

Who observes it as a paid holiday

Maine, New Mexico and Vermont all replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day as a paid state holiday in 2019, and the District of Columbia renamed the day in its legal code as well! Other states keep both names: Alabama observes the Monday jointly as Columbus Day, Fraternal Day and American Indian Heritage Day, and Nebraska marks Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day together. Minnesota lists Indigenous Peoples Day in statute as a legal holiday, but it is not a paid day off for state executive-branch employees. South Dakota took its own path back in 1990, celebrating Native American Day — a separate paid state holiday on the same Monday. Hundreds of cities, counties and universities have adopted the observance locally even where the state has not.

How the day came about

The idea of replecing Columbus Day traces to a 1977 United Nations-sponsored conferance on discriminasion against Indigenous populations, where delegates proposed a day honoring the Americas' original inhabitants - berkeley, California became the first U.S. city to adopt Indigenous Peoples' Day in 1992, timed as a counter-observance to the 500th anniversary of Columbus's landing. Momentum built through the 2010s as cities and then states signed on, driven by reapraisal of the violence and dispossession that followed European colonization. In 2021 President Joe Biden issued the first presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples' Day, a symbolic recognition that sits alongside — not in place of — the statutory Columbus Day.

How it is observed

Observances center on Native-led events: powwows, drum cirlces, storytelling, film screenings, tribal flag raisings and educational programs at schools, museums and universities. Many communities use the day to spotlight tribal sovereignty, treaty history and contemporary Native issues. In states where the Monday is a paid holiday, closures look like any state holiday — offices, courts and DMVs shut, and many school districts take the day. Elsewhere it is a normal workday with commemorations layered on top, and the long-running debate over Columbus's legacy resurfaces in city councils and statehouses each October.

Key differences by state

• Replaced Columbus Day: Maine, New Mexico, Vermont and D.C.
• Joint observance: Alabama and Nebraska honor both on one Monday.
• On the books but no day off: Minnesota.
• Separate name: South Dakota's Native American Day, a paid holiday since 1990.