Glen Rock is considering renaming Columbus Day, or adding a second title, Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Mayor Bruce Packer said he had received emails requesting the change, similar to action taken by cities and states across the country in recent years. Posing the question to council members at the April 24 meeting, he noted that Glen Rock would be the first municipality in Bergen County to change the holiday. The earliest a potential calendar change would happen is 2020, he said.

Saying she received emails from residents with “compelling reasons” for the change, Councilwoman Arati Kreibich expressed support, as it sends an “inclusive message.”

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“What affected me was one of the emails we got compared it to Confederate statutes, which I feel very strongly about,” said Kreibich. “We shouldn’t say ‘well this is just the way it was, and therefore, we’re just going to celebrate it.’”

Supporting the calendar change, Councilwoman Amy Martin said, “It’s important for us to honor our history and be honest.”

But Councilman Bill Leonard said: “I don’t think we should do it. I don’t want to go into a full defense of Christopher Columbus, but I don’t feel comfortable going back 500 years, judging people by 21st century standards.” He said two emails he received were word-for-word copies.

“I want to know what our residents think, but I don’t want cut-and-paste emails,” he said.

Andre DiMino, executive board member of the Italian American One Voice Coalition, on Thursday called it part a troubling nationwide trend. The coalition supports celebrating an Indigenous Peoples’ Day, but not at the expense of Columbus Day.

“They are trying to pin all these supposed atrocities that occurred just on Columbus, when this was not the Garden of Eden when explorers from the West came here. There was a lot of slavery, atrocities and barbarism going on with the indigenous people, he said. "We can’t hold them to today’s standards, and they can’t hold Columbus and the other western explorers to today’s standards as well.”

The two holidays competing for the same day pits one group against another, said DiMino.

“Columbus Day is an American holiday, and Italian Americans have become the caretakers of it,” he said. “Don’t discriminate against Italian Americans by taking away our holiday”

Glen Rock Council members on Wednesday agreed to listen to more public feedback before taking action.

“This town is known by its Indian rock, no one has tried to remove it,” said Sanjiv Ohri, encouraging the council to be sensitive toward Italian Americans. The Lenape are believed to have visited the 570-ton rock on present-day Rock Road and gave it its name, Pamachapuka, or “stone from heaven/sky.”

Resident Gabe Bullaro questioned which peoples would be honored, to which Packer said that would be part of the discussion.

Despite the dozen or so emails sent to the council, no member of the public spoke during the meeting in support of Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Over 60 United States cities, including Newark, replaced Columbus Day with holidays honoring Native Americans two years ago, sparking controversy. Italian American organizers contend the day should recognize the explorer and Italian heritage. Critics have said the holiday glorifies subjugation of Native Americans and Latinos.

New Jersey recognizes Columbus Day, which falls on Oct. 14 this year, as one of 12 state holidays. Former Gov. Jon Corzine recognized October as Italian Heritage Month in 2009, holding a signing ceremony in front of a Columbus bust in Nutley, a community with strong Italian roots and an annual Columbus Day parade.

Monuments honoring Columbus and parks in his name are common in North Jersey, in places like Garfield, Hackensack, Clifton, North Arlington, Kearny, Lyndhurst, Jersey City and Lodi. Last year, a monument in Garfield was vandalized with red paint.

The dilemma isn’t about celebrating one holiday or another, but identifying what Columbus did and what he believed, said Leslie Wilson, a history professor at Montclair State University. In the past, emphasis was placed on Columbus because European discovery of America was central, minimizing the impact on native populations. How Columbus is viewed frames what his holiday means.

“Columbus’ role in history has been alternated and distorted, and we all play a role in that because of the way we are educated. We are all looking for something in Columbus that Columbus isn’t,” said Wilson.

“For some of us, he’s a symbol of pride and heritage, so an important person in history. Others, they see him as the leader of a movement, but he was only a part of that movement. For others, they see him as a religious figure, following the will of the church coming to this land and Christianizing people.”

The modern interpretation of Columbus as leader of a mass genocide can also be “problematic,” he said.

While there is “good intent” in promoting an Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Wilson said it might be preferable to create a separate date for recognition.

Columbus Day was started in 1792 in New York as a celebration of Italian heritage, and later recognized as a federal holiday in 1937.

In addition to various counties and municipalities around the nation, the states of Maine, Vermont, Minnesota, Oregon, South Dakota, Nevada and Alaska have also made the change, some as long ago as nearly 30 years ago.