{Grand Canyon National Park originally posted by @usinterior} It has been encouraging seeing all the posts today acknowledging Indigenous Peoples’ Day and critically thinking about Columbus, but it has also been interesting to see how many people approach it. I have seen posts thanking Native people for their “sacrifice” or posts using passive voice like “the decline or” or “the elimination of.” Let’s remember that the colonial encounter in the Americas wasn’t a passive process. Columbus represents very real people who actively and with full knowledge of what they were doing enacted genocide on indigenous people. Public Lands like the Grand Canyon aren’t the result of an unfortunate race passively disappearing in the wake of settlers, but of violent, state sponsored removal. When you fight for these public lands, remember to also fight for the Native people who still feel the impact of 1492.

The Grand Canyon is the homeland of numerous southwestern nations including the Havasupai, Hopi, Hualapai, Navajo, Paiute, White Mountain Apache, Yavapai Apache, and Zuni peoples.