Vermont is likely to become the third state to officially remove Columbus Day for Aboriginal Day.

Columbus Day will likely be a thing of the past in Vermont in the near future. The Vermont Legislative Assembly on Wednesday passed a bill that would permanently recognize the second Monday in October as Indigenous Peoples Day and that Governor Phil Scott said he would be likely to sign it. "I see no reason not to sign it," Scott told the Burlington Free Press, "but we are reviewing the bill right now."

Vermont has not actually celebrated Columbus Day for a few years. Former Governor Peter Shumlin signed in 2016 a proclamation of the Governor recognizing Aboriginal Peoples Day and which continued even after the current Republican governor took office. But the measure pending the governor's signature would completely eliminate Columbus Day, making Vermont the third state to legally rename the party after New Mexico and South Dakota. Alaska is in a special situation as it never recognized Columbus Day as a holiday, but declared Aboriginal Day a holiday in 2017.

Many cities across the country have also decided to rename Columbus Day as a way of honoring Aboriginal peoples and recognizing that history learned at school ignored the brutality of colonization. "Things that are symbolic can go a long way," said Rich Holschuh, a member of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs at the Burlington Free Press. "The degree of misinformation and lack of understanding about the situation of Vermont natives, as a microcosm of the national situation, is fully illustrated by the way Columbus was celebrated and the natives ignored."

Maine is likely to do the same and be the next state to remove Columbus Day after the Maine Senate has approved a bill that would rename the holiday on Thursday. Governor Janet Mills, whose administration had previously expressed support for the measure, would now need to sign the bill to turn it into law. Oami Amarasingham, Policy Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, celebrated the decision of state legislators. "It is time to stop celebrating a man whose arrival has caused death, sickness and slavery to hundreds of thousands of people and begin to honor the people who lived here before," said Amarasingham.