Following an emotional and heated debate, the Los Angeles City Council voted 14-1 Wednesday to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.

Councilman Mike Bonin, who pointed to his family’s Italian origins, called the move a “very small step in apologizing and making amends” to Native Americans.

Christopher Columbus, for whom the federal holiday is named, has long been a hero of the Italian- American community, but the European explorer has also been accused of enslaving indigenous peoples and setting off a series of events that led to the decimation of Native American populations.

The council’s vote begins the process of establishing Indigenous Peoples Day as a city holiday to be observed on the second Monday of October. The city will have until 2019 to rename the holiday.

Los Angeles joins other municipalities, including Berkeley, Seattle and Denver, that have adopted Indigenous Peoples Day, although Los Angeles is considered the largest city to take the step.

L.A. also has one of the largest populations of Native Americans, coming in second to New York City, according to U.S. census data.

The effort to change Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day here grew out of a proposal by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, who is a member of the Wyandotte Nation tribe.

• RELATED PHOTOS: L.A. tosses out Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples Day

The idea proved contentious, with some of the strongest opposition coming from the Italian-American community. Councilman Joe Buscaino, who cast the lone dissenting vote on Wednesday, characterized the effort to observe Indigenous Peoples Day in place of a day with special meaning for some Italian-Americans as divisive.

“We’ve forgotten the depth of prejudice and outright hatred faced by Italian-Americans in this country,” he said. “We must embrace Los Angeles and not divide it.”

He had proposed scheduling Indigenous Peoples Day on Aug. 9, which is when the United Nations observes that holiday, but the majority of his colleagues shot down the plan.

Under his proposal, which was co-authored by Councilman Gil Cedillo and seconded by Councilman Mitchell Englander, Columbus Day would still be eliminated as a city holiday, but it would have been replaced with one that celebrates all ethnicities and cultures, including Italians.

While the corridors of City Hall on Wednesday echoed with the thundering sound of drums accompanying Aztec dancers, as many rallied to support adopting Indigenous Peoples Day, there was also a contingent of Italian-Americans who spoke forcefully against ending the observance of Columbus Day.

Ann Potenza, president of the Federated Italo-Americans of Southern California, said she supports a holiday honoring Native Americans, but not “at the expense of Columbus Day.”

She contended that Columbus has been put “on trial because of slavery and genocide that is associated with him and everything that has happened in the Americas since he came 500 years ago.” But she said he was not the only one to have participated in that activity and should not be blamed for all of it.

“Even the Native Americans, the indigenous Americans, ancient civilizations have engaged in slavery,” she said.

Meanwhile, members of Native American tribes and others said historical records show actions by Columbus and those who followed him from Europe have had a disastrous effect on the Native American population.

Some spoke Wednesday of the need to bring more visibility for indigenous groups, members of which have long felt ignored or misinterpreted in public life.

“As indigenous communities, we blend in, but we still are very much culturally tied to our communities and our traditions,” Leisette Rodriguez, an attorney, said in an interview outside council chambers.

Rodriguez, who identifies as a Chicana and is a member of the Apache tribe, is a resident of Long Beach and says Los Angeles can set an example for the county as well as other cities to follow.

“There’s no reason why one of the largest urban cities in the United States … cannot honor indigenous people, the history and their presence,” she said.