JZ71 says:

The biggest proponents for keeping Columbus Day the way it is are Italian-Americans. The biggest opponents to Columbus Day are Native Americans. To IA’s, Columbus is an ethnic hero, a symbol of their ethnic pride. To NA’s, Columbus is an invading oppressor. The truth is somewhere in the middle. Indian tribes fought each other and NA’s died at their own hands, before Europeans ever arrived on this continent*. Columbus never even reached what is the modern-day United States or the North American continent, so how can he be an oppressor?

This is a case of both sides stretching the truth to futher their respective agendas. And the reality is that most people could care less about the reasons behind the holiday, they just want the day off and/or the dicounts that come with the “sales”. And as a “holiday”, federal workers and union workers will make damn sure that they continue to get the same number of days off every year, if not more, no matter what they may be called (which is one reason we have Presidents Day instead of both Washington’s birthday and Lincoln’s birthday as designated holidays in February.)

*”Columbus didn’t “discover” America — he never set foot in North America. During four separate trips that started with the one in 1492, Columbus landed on various Caribbean islands that are now the Bahamas as well as the island later called Hispaniola. He also explored the Central and South American coasts. But he didn’t reach North America, which, of course, was already inhabited by Native Americans, and he never thought he had found a new continent. You may also remember that it is believed that Norse explorer Leif Erikson reached Canada perhaps 500 years before Columbus was born, and there are some who believe that Phoenician sailors crossed the Atlantic much earlier than that.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/10/14/christopher-columbus-3-things-you-think-he-did-that-he-didnt/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/02/16/why-presidents-day-is-slightly-strange/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day