The Oklahoma State Department of Education has received backlash for an online post marking Columbus Day, despite Oklahoma not recognizing the holiday.
In a post Monday on its social media platforms, OSDE said Columbus’ voyage to the Americas “ultimately discovered the New World.”
The post drew criticism online, including from Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr.
“I think it’s born out of the same weird obsession that that department seems to have with supposed woke ideology,” he said in an interview with Public Radio Tulsa. “I think they were looking for an opportunity to spin the false narrative that Columbus was some sort of hero.”
While Columbus was not the first European to visit the Americas, his voyage kicked off a wave of exploration and colonization of the New World.
Columbus Day is celebrated on the second Monday of every October as a federal holiday. It is not recognized as a state holiday in Oklahoma. Many other states do not recognize the day as a paid holiday, either.
In 2021, the federal government also recognized the day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. In Tulsa, it’s called Native American Day.
OSDE posted a second message over two hours later recognizing the state’s 39 sovereign nations, though it made no mention of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
OSDE did not respond to request for comment by the time of this story being published.
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