6
That’s the number of municipalities in Massachusetts that will be celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day, not Columbus Day, on Monday. Amherst and Northampton made the change in 2016. Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville signed on thereafter. Great Barrington became the latest municipality to make the change, when the Select Board signed a proclamation changing the holiday last month. Pittsfield’s schools also mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day, not Columbus Day.
Berkeley, Calif., made the change in 1992. Since then, dozens of other communities across the country have done so. So have several states; Vermont and Maine made the shift earlier this year. A bill pending on Beacon Hill would change the holiday here.