Columbus Day comes around every year but the acknowledgment continues to prove questionable to certain groups. A growing number of Americans every year have been vocal about the redundancy and hypocrisy of the holiday. 

Many are calling for it to be abolished and replaced by the Indigenous Peoples’ Day. 

Recently, the Michigan State Senate adopted a resolution creating Michigan Indian Day, the recognized day will take place on the fourth Friday in September.

There are only nine more states left that currently recognize and celebrate Columbus Day.

NAISO (North American Indigenous Student Organization) has been marching on Columbus Day carrying signs for several years hoping for the same result each time.

“We’re not angry, we just want people to know the alternative,” NAISO co-chair and public policy senior Diop Harris said.

Harris said people often think their march is only an anti-Columbus movement but he hopes to talk to and educate people about the truth behind Columbus Day.

“I just think it would be respectful to change the name to Indigenous Peoples Day,” he said.

NAISO had supporters from other groups come out to the march and show support for Indigenous Peoples Day including the Black Student Alliance, Indigenous Graduate Student Collective and CRU.

"There has been an injustice done against Native Americans," social work junior Gabriella Abalo said.

"Celebrating someone who did that is just supporting what he did," Abalo said, adding that despite she is not Native, she found it important to come out and support something she believes in.

Native American groups on campus sometimes feel overlooked on a local and national level because they're a smaller portion of both populations.

"I think it’s really important that there is some visibility about anti-Columbus Day movements and it’s important also to have visibility for Native communities and Native student here at Michigan State,” said IGSC Communications coordinator and graduate student Shelbi Nahwillet Meissner.

The Native population on campus amounts to .3 percent of the population, roughly 170 of the 50,000 mass population.

“We have the smallest per capita population out of any other racial group,” Harris said.

Harris said it can be hard with their smaller population but it doesn’t weaken their want to speak up.

“Even though we’re small numbers, we’re loud,” Meissner said. “It’s more so that people don’t want to hear it.”

Meissner said IGSC speaks out against disrespectful events and groups such as the Order of The Arrow (NOAC). The group held a protest in August to voice their anger with cultural appropriation going on with Native traditions.

“MSU is still maintaining that they are just a venue, that they are in no way condoning this behavior but they’re still profiting off of it,” Meissner said.

Meissner said MSU misses the mark when it comes to the treatment of Native groups on campus in this case.

“What I want to know is where that 3.5 million they got from the Order of the Arrow, how much of that is going to be specifically invested in Native American students programs,” she said.

From early ages, students learn about history in books but Native voices and narratives can often be left out.

Harris said there is a bigger picture when it comes to getting History right is education.

“Now we’re starting to see in our history books starting with elementary where it’s not so celebratory of Christopher Columbus — it’s more about the truth,” Harris said.

Harris said he glanced at his younger sister’s history book and already notices a difference from when he was younger.

“Now we see the other part of the story being told,” he said.

He said if people are persistent about celebrating Columbus Day than he wants them to take a step back and look at the Native point of view.

"We’re not trying to spread hate, we’re trying to spread love and unity,” said PowWow fundraising chair and food industry management senior Karley Rivard.

Rivard spoke when the march ended at the Rock on Farm Lane about how in the past she was negative and angry about Columbus Day, but now she has found forgiveness and only wants to educate people.