Celebrate Columbus/Indigenous Peoples' Day with Gilder Lehrman Resources

In 2021, the President declared Indigenous Peoples’ Day a federal holiday to be observed on the same day as Columbus Day. The Gilder Lehrman Institute invites everyone—students, teachers, and history enthusiasts—to visit our Columbus/Indigenous Peoples’ Day resource page in honor of this coming observance.

Explore the day from many angles here and find

Spotlights and Essays

• A Spotlight on a Primary Source Document: Secotan, an Algonquian village, ca. 1585
• “Cultural Encounters: Teaching Exploration and Encounter to Students” by Joyce Chaplin (Harvard University)
• “A New Era of American Indian Autonomy” by Ned Blackhawk (Yale University), History Now 9: The American West (Fall 2006)
• “American Indians and the Transcontinental Railroad” by Elliott West (University of Arkansas), History Now 38: The Joining of the Rails: The Transcontinental Railroad (Winter 2014)
• “Native American Discoveries of Europe” by Daniel K. Richter (University of Pennsylvania), History Now 12: The Age of Exploration (Summer 2007)

Video Lectures

• “America before Columbus” by journalist Charles C. Mann
• “Europeans and the New World, 1400–1530” by Brian DeLay (University of California, Berkeley)
• “Nature, Culture, and Native Americans”: Daniel Wildcat, a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma (Haskell Indian Nations University)

Lesson Plans

• “Letter from Christopher Columbus”
• “Murder on the Frontier: The Paxton Massacre”
• “Native American Policy”

Find more American historical holidays to explore here.

Also, check out our relevant Self-Paced Courses:

• American Colonies, led by Alan Taylor, University of Virginia
• American Indian History: Case Studies, led by Colin Calloway, Dartmouth College
• American Indian History: Recasting the Narrative, led by Ned Blackhawk, Yale University