PORTLAND (AP) – The three Green Party members on the Portland School Committee would like to see students celebrate “Indigenous People’s Day” instead of Columbus Day.

Jason Toothaker, who’s leading the effort for the name change, said Christopher Columbus exploited Native Americans, and many of them today view his voyage to the New World as a tragic event.

But other school committee members say the panel has no authority over federal holidays and shouldn’t get involved.

Toothaker describes himself as one-sixteenth Indian. His father’s grandmother was a member of the Penobscot tribe, he said, and he remembers that when he was a child, his father’s side of the family didn’t like Columbus. “He opened the way for the slave trade,” Toothaker said. “Because of the way he interacted with the natives, he should not be heralded as much as we are heralding him today.”

At Toothaker’s request, the School Department last week circulated a survey about the holiday name change to city teachers. Toothaker proposed the change to the Professional Development Committee, which is in the process of drawing up next year’s calendar.

School committee members Benjamin Meiklejohn and Stephen Spring, who are also Green Party members, also support the holiday name change. They said celebrating a “double” holiday, “Columbus/Indigenous Day,” that honors both Columbus and Native Americans would be a good compromise.

But school committee member Jim DiMillo said the idea is absurd, and serves as an example of symbolic politics that distracts the board from doing its job.

“I think the people who run the schools should make sure the kids get the best education possible,” DiMillo said. “We have better things to worry about than what we call Columbus Day.”

Committee Chairman Jonathan Radtke says he’s not sure if the committee will even take up the matter. “It’s a federal holiday,” he said. “It’s not our issue.”

Camillo Breggia, former president of the Italian Heritage Center, said Columbus was a great explorer and navigator whose actions more than 500 years ago are being unfairly judged according to the values of modern society.

Breggia said Columbus Day should be celebrated if only because the discovery of America was a turning point in world history.

“What was done to the Indians was not very nice,” he said. “You can’t change history. But you can accept it for what it is.”

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Information from: Portland Press Herald, https://www.pressherald.com