The Seattle Human Rights Commission is doubling down on its effort to purge Columbus Day from its list of city celebrations, and have it replaced in the Emerald City with “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.”

When Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, the commission believes he was up to no good. In one of 16 “Whereas” clauses to its resolution, the city’s human rights panel declares:

“WHEREAS, the Commission recognizes that the celebration of Christopher Columbus and his alleged 1492 discovery of the lands that would later become known as the Americas works to celebrate an era of colonization and dispossession of indigenous peoples’ homelands, as well as the decimation of entire groups of indigenous peoples from North and South America.”

Columbus has waxed and waned during the last 140 years of American history.

The Genoese explorer never set foot in North America. Yet, he became a symbol of belonging for Italian-Americans during their period of greatest migration to the United States between 1880 and 1914.

President Benjamin Harrison did not lionize Columbus when he proclaimed Columbus Day in 1892, in fact calling for a broader celebration:

“On that day, let the people so far as possible cease from toil and devote themselves to such exercises as may best express honor to the discoverer and their appreciation of the great achievements of the four completed centuries of American life.”

Columbus Day became a federal holiday in the 1930’s under America’s most liberal president, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

But Columbus has come in for rough going in recent years. In 2002, Venezuela’s tinpot dictator Hugo Chavez abolished Columbia Day in favor of a “Day of Indigenous Resistance.” A mob in Caracas tore down a statue of Columbus.

South Dakota in 1990 replaced Columbus Day with Native American Day. Hawaii has opted for a Discoverers Day. Berkeley, Calif., minted an Indigenous Peoples Day. Alaska has never observed Columbus Day, possibly because it is close to Alaska Day, which falls on Oct. 18

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The most recent city to adopt an Indigenous Peoples Day, Minneapolis, did so in April.

The local Human Rights Commission quotes a United Nations declaration on rights of indigenous peoples — widely ignored by countries that sponsored it — as well as something called the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

But more to the point, its resolution notes that the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians have called for Columbus Day to be scrapped and replaced by Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

The commission wants to go beyond a name change, however, declaring:

“NOW BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Commission encourages the Board of Directors for the Seattle Public Schools to mandate that the public schools of our City teach about the history, culture and governments of indigenous peoples of our state as set forth in H.B. 1495 and as elaborated on in the Since Time Immemorial Curriculum, and

“NOW THEREFORE IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED that the Commission encourages the Board of Directors for the Seattle Public Schools to mandate that the public schools of our City give special focus to the history, culture and governments of indigenous peoples on the second Monday of October.”

The Seattle City Council is known as receptive to symbolic activist-pleasing actions and wordy resolutions. Council members Mike O’Brien and Nick Licata reached a total of 19 “WHEREAS” clauses in endorsing goals of the Occupy movement.

A less highfalutin’ rationale was offered recently by California Assemblyman Roger Hernandez, who has offered a resolution to change Columbus Day to Native American Day.

“We’re not trying to rewrite history,” Hernandez told Huffington Post. “We just want to provide recognition and credit to the true discoverers of this land.”