Columbus Had Nerve. Nanepashemet Was Already Here. On Monday, Why Not Honor Both?

This is catching the MOAM's attention today….. Monday is the second Monday in October, and depending on which side of a town line you're standing on, it's either Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day. Every year we have the same argument about it. The MOAM has a simple answer this year: why not both?

What the law actually says

In Massachusetts, the legal name of the holiday is still Columbus Day. Chapter 6, Section 12V of the General Laws tells the governor to proclaim the second Monday in October as Columbus Day, "to the end that the memory of the courage, perseverance and spiritual fervor of Christopher Columbus, discoverer of America, may be perpetuated" (Mass. General Laws). The federal government calls it Columbus Day too (WBUR).

Cities and towns have gone their own way. Boston, Cambridge and Somerville call it Indigenous Peoples Day. Worcester uses both names (WBUR).

Closer to home, Marblehead made the switch at the May 2019 Annual Town Meeting. Article 19 passed, and the vote says the town "shall, from October 2019 forward, celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day as the official holiday on the second Monday of October" and stop recognizing Columbus Day as a publicly sanctioned holiday in town (Marblehead 2019 Annual Town Report). Salem took a different route. In September 2020 the City Council passed a resolution, 6 to 5, declaring the day Indigenous Peoples Day in the city. The councilors who voted no said they supported an Indigenous Peoples Day but wanted to look at giving it its own date, so the two didn't fall on the same day (Salem Patch).

Beacon Hill, again

Every session somebody files a bill to change the state name. This time it was Sen. Jo Comerford's S.2113, with a House version, H.3292, from Rep. Christine Barber of Somerville. Both would strike out the Columbus Day section and replace it with Indigenous Peoples Day (S.2113 text). The House bill was reported favorably out of committee in September 2025 and has been sitting on the House calendar for a second reading since October 2025 (H.3292). The Senate bill was sent to a study order on August 13 (S.2113, S.3257), which on Beacon Hill is usually where a bill goes to wait out the session. In each of the last two sessions, similar bills also came out of committee and never made it over the finish line (WPRI).

So for now, for a third session running, the state's answer is: no answer. Which, honestly, leaves room for the rest of us to work it out.

Give the sailor his due

The MOAM lives in a town that has made its living on the water for nearly 400 years. Ask any Marblehead fisherman what it takes to point a small wooden ship west into an ocean nobody on board had ever crossed, with no guarantee of a landfall. Courage and perseverance are the words the statute uses, and on that part the statute is right. That kind of nerve is worth remembering, and plenty of Italian-American families on the North Shore hold this day dear for good reasons.

And tell the story of who was here

WBUR opened its holiday story with a line from a 1991 children's song by Nancy Schimmel: "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. It was a courageous thing to do, but someone was already here" (WBUR). That's the whole case for "both" in two sentences.

Around here, the someone has a name. Nanepashemet, whose name is usually translated as "New Moon," was the sachem who led the Native people across a big stretch of what is now coastal northeastern Massachusetts, including Naumkeag, the land that became Salem, and the Marblehead peninsula, where his people fished, dug shellfish and grew corn (Wikipedia). He was killed in 1619 by raiders from the north at his fort near the Mystic River in what is now Medford. Two years later, a Plymouth party that included Edward Winslow came upon that fort and wrote that he lay buried inside it (Mourt's Relation, 1622).

His widow, the woman sachem of the Mystic, led the people after him, along with their sons, known to the English as Sagamore John, Sagamore James and Sagamore George (Wikipedia). And here's the part every Header should know. In 1684 Marblehead paid 16 pounds to the family's surviving heirs for the land the town sits on. Sagamore George, Wenepoykin, had agreed to the sale but died before he could sign, so his widow and other relatives signed it with their marks. That deed still hangs in Abbot Hall (Marblehead Historical Commission).

The MOAM has a personal stake in this one. He wrote the first Wikipedia entry on Nanepashemet, because a man who led this coast before the Pilgrims landed deserved at least a page. And his novel, The Wing, tells the story of Nanepashemet's family as the English arrived. If you want to spend part of the long weekend with them, the paperback is here on Amazon.

The MOAM's take

This doesn't have to be a tug-of-war. Nobody has to tear down one man to tell another man's story. Honor the nerve it took to cross the Atlantic in 1492, the way the state law does. Then take a walk to Abbot Hall, look at that 1684 deed, and remember the family who was standing on the shore when the ships came in. Marblehead and Salem each landed in a different spot on this, and Beacon Hill hasn't landed at all. The MOAM's vote: one Monday, two stories, both worth telling.

A few ideas for the long weekend:

1. Stop by Abbot Hall and see the 1684 town deed in the Select Board room.
2. Drive over to the Middlesex Fells. Nanepashemet Hill is named for him (Wikipedia).
3. Ask your kids or grandkids what they learned about Columbus, and who was here first. Then tell them about the New Moon sachem who ruled the shore they swim off.

MOAM Out.

Sources: Mass. General Laws c. 6 §12V · WBUR, Oct. 6, 2026 · WPRI, Oct. 10, 2025 · S.2113 · S.3257 · H.3292 · Town of Marblehead 2019 Annual Town Report (Article 19) · Marblehead Independent, Oct. 13, 2025 · Salem Patch, Sept. 25, 2020 · Mourt's Relation (1622) · Marblehead Historical Commission: Town Deed · Wikipedia: Nanepashemet