Jordan Perzik, a psychology intern in California, studies indigenous cultures in his free time. Actively involved with the Malki Museum at the Morongo Indian Reservation and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum of the Cahuilla Indians, Jordan Perzik advocates for preservation of the history of native peoples.

1. LOS ANGELES CITY
COUNCIL ESTABLISHES
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES
DAY
Jordan Perzik

2. Introduction
◦ Jordan Perzik, a psychology intern in California, studies indigenous cultures in his
free time. Actively involved with the Malki Museum at the Morongo Indian
Reservation and the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum of the Cahuilla Indians,
Jordan Perzik advocates for preservation of the history of native peoples.
In October of 2017, the City of Los Angeles ruled that it would no longer
celebrate the second Monday of October as Columbus Day. This reflected the
city's commitment to cease the glorification of the eponymous explorer, whose
trip to the “New World” led to centuries of genocide and cultural erasure.
Los Angeles has chosen to replace the celebration of Christopher Columbus with
Indigenous Peoples Day, which it ruled would fall on the same date as the federal
holiday.

3. Indigenous Peoples Day
◦ The new holiday will honor the diversity of native and indigenous peoples and is
intended to recognize the losses that these peoples have experienced.
Advocates for the change acknowledge that the step is a small one, considering the
degree of enslavement, abuse, and killing of Native American peoples that
followed the coming of the Europeans. Those who argued for the change hope
that the new holiday will help to raise awareness of these events, which activists
assert have been largely missing from the historical narrative for hundreds of
years.