When is Indigenous Peoples' Day?

Which states observe Columbus Day, and which observe Indigenous Peoples' Day?

All 51 jurisdictions are here — the fifty states and the District of Columbia — each one read off its own statute or published holiday schedule, linked in the last column. Where a jurisdiction's own record does not settle a question, the row says so instead of filling it in.

Of those, 29 name Columbus Day, 8 name Indigenous Peoples' Day or their own equivalent, 3 carry both names on the one day, and 11 name neither.

What each record actually says

• Alabama. Alabama runs three occasions together on the one Monday, and its official state holiday schedule prints them as a single entry in that order. It is a paid state holiday.
• Alaska. Alaska files the day under designated days and months of honor rather than under its holidays. The state's own holiday list carries no entry on the second Monday in October, so state offices work that day.
• Arizona. The holidays statute lists it fourteenth, as "Second Monday in October, 'Columbus Day'".
• Arkansas. Arkansas's observed-holiday policy runs from Labor Day straight to Veterans Day with nothing on any Monday in October, and neither name appears on it.
• California. The same statute sets aside the fourth Friday in September as Native American Day, a different day.
• Colorado. Colorado replaced Columbus Day with Frances Xavier Cabrini Day, and put it on the FIRST Monday in October — a different day from the one this page is about. Nothing sits on the second Monday, so state offices work it.
• Connecticut. The legal holidays statute names it "the second Monday in October (known as Columbus Day)".
• Delaware. Delaware's legal holidays statute puts no holiday on the second Monday in October at all — it runs from Labor Day straight to Veterans Day. Neither name appears.
• District of Columbia. The District is not a state; its legal public holidays are set by the D.C. Code, which lists "Indigenous Peoples' Day, the 2nd Monday in October of each year".
• Florida. Two Florida statutes answer different halves of this. The legal-holidays section names the day, pairing Columbus Day with Farmers' Day; the separate paid-holidays section for state branches and agencies runs from Labor Day to Veterans' Day with nothing in October, so state offices work it.
• Georgia. Georgia's state holidays are set year by year rather than fixed by name in a self-executing list, and the published schedule names the second Monday in October Columbus Day.
• Hawaii. Hawaii names the day, but neither of these two names: the statute calls the second Monday in October Discoverers' Day, in recognition of the Polynesian discoverers of the Hawaiian Islands, and says in the same sentence that it is not to be construed as a state holiday. The separate holidays section lists no October holiday.
• Idaho. The holidays statute lists "Second Monday in October (Columbus Day)".
• Indiana. The state personnel department's own holiday schedule lists Columbus Day on the second Monday in October as a paid state holiday.
• Iowa. The legal public holidays section runs from Labor Day to Veterans Day with nothing in October. The Columbus Day section instead asks the governor to proclaim it each year for flag display and commemoration, and fixes it to October 12 rather than to the second Monday.
• Kansas. The legal public holidays statute lists "Columbus Day, the second Monday in October".
• Maine. The state holiday schedule published by the Bureau of Human Resources carries Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday in October. Columbus Day does not appear on it.
• Maryland. Maryland fixes the day to the calendar date — "October 12, for Columbus Day" — or to whichever day Congress designates instead. The same statute gives the Friday after Thanksgiving to American Indian Heritage Day.
• Massachusetts. Two records meet here. The legal holidays statute puts a holiday on the second Monday in October without naming it; a separate section directs the governor to issue a proclamation each year setting that Monday apart as Columbus Day. The name is renewed annually; the day off is not.
• Mississippi. Mississippi's holiday closing calendar goes from Labor Day to Veterans' Day with no October entry at all, so state offices work the second Monday and neither name appears.
• Missouri. The same section rules out a state-employee holiday on the fourth Monday in October, which is how it distinguishes this day from the one it declines.
• Montana. Montana gives the day a single compound entry naming both observances together, in that order, rather than choosing between them.
• Nebraska. Nebraska's holidays statute carries both names on the one day, in that order, rather than choosing between them.
• Nevada. Nevada files Columbus Day under periods of observance, not holidays: the governor is asked to proclaim the second Monday in October each year, while the legal-holiday section puts no holiday on the day, so state offices work it. Nevada does have an Indigenous Peoples Day, proclaimed for August 9 — a different day from this one.
• New Jersey. The published state holidays list carries Columbus Day on the second Monday in October among the days state offices close.
• New Mexico. The paid holiday schedule carries Indigenous Peoples Day on the second Monday in October, and Columbus Day does not appear on it. The statute behind it spells the name with the apostrophe — Indigenous Peoples' day — where the schedule drops it.
• New York. The Department of Civil Service's published legal holiday schedule carries Columbus Day in October as a paid state holiday.
• North Dakota. The list of days state offices close runs from Labor Day straight to Veterans Day, so offices work the second Monday in October. Neither name appears on it.
• Ohio. The legal holidays section names it "the second Monday in October, known as Columbus day", in the statute's own lower-case styling.
• Oklahoma. Oklahoma's holiday list runs from Labor Day straight to Veterans' Day with nothing in October, and neither name appears anywhere in it. The same section ties state employees' paid days off to that list, so offices work the day.
• Oregon. Oregon designates the day by statute but does not make it a legal holiday: the legal-holidays section runs from Labor Day to Veterans Day with nothing in October, so state offices work it. Columbus Day appears nowhere in the chapter.
• Rhode Island. The holidays statute names "the second Monday of October (as Columbus Day)".
• South Carolina. South Carolina's enumerated legal holidays run from Labor Day straight to Veterans Day with nothing between them, so no holiday of any name falls on the second Monday in October.
• South Dakota. South Dakota uses its own name rather than either of the two: the statute enumerates "the second Monday in October, commonly known as Native Americans' Day" as a legal holiday.
• Texas. Texas is unusually direct about it: the same section that makes the second Monday of October Columbus Day also states that public offices of this state remain open on it. Texas files the day among the optional holidays a state employee may take only by giving up another holiday that year.
• Utah. The legal holidays section lists the second Monday of October as Columbus Day among the state's holidays.
• Vermont. The legal holidays statute lists "Indigenous Peoples' Day, the second Monday in October". Columbus Day is not in the list.
• Virginia. Virginia puts two occasions on the one Monday, naming Columbus Day and Yorktown Victory Day together in a single legal-holiday entry.
• Washington. Washington files it as a legislatively recognized day rather than a holiday, and the statute says in so many words that recognized days may not be considered legal holidays for any purpose — so state offices work it. Note that the entry is fixed to October 12 rather than to the second Monday, and the two only coincide in some years.
• West Virginia. The legal holidays statute states that "The second Monday of October is 'Columbus Day'".
• Wisconsin. The statute names Labor day and Juneteenth Day in the same sentence, which is what makes the unnamed October entry stand out rather than read as an oversight.
• Wyoming. Wyoming's legal holidays run from Labor Day straight to Veterans Day, and the subsection that would sit between them is marked repealed, so no holiday remains on the second Monday in October. Wyoming's Native American Day is a different day — the second Friday in May.

Where the record does not settle it

13 jurisdictions' records do not settle the question. Here is exactly what is unsettled in each:

• California. The holidays statute names the day Columbus Day, but which of those days are paid days off for state employees is set separately, and this table has not read that schedule — so whether California's offices work the day is not answered here.
• Illinois. The record that names the day is a bank-holiday statute: it makes the second Monday in October a legal holiday on which a bank may, but is not required to, close. It says nothing about whether state offices close, and this table has not read the schedule that would.
• Kentucky. The public-holidays section names the day, but the same list carries purely commemorative days alongside it, so appearing on it does not by itself mean offices shut — and the record does not say whether they do.
• Louisiana. The days-of-public-rest statute names the day and in the same breath leaves closing optional, letting banks in named parishes stay open on it. Whether state offices close is set elsewhere, and this table has not read that record.
• Michigan. The statute names the day, but what it does with it is treat the day like a Sunday for commercial purposes. It does not say whether state offices close, and this table has not read the schedule that would.
• Minnesota. The same statute that names the day Indigenous Peoples Day then takes it back out for the executive branch, whose holidays it says do not include it, and leaves other branches and local governments to decide for themselves — so the state names the day but most state offices work it, and the answer below the state level varies by office.
• Missouri. Missouri's public holidays statute establishes a holiday on the second Monday in October but attaches no name to it, so the record read here does not say which of the two names the state uses.
• New Hampshire. The holidays statute makes the second Monday in October a legal holiday called Columbus Day, but it does not say whether state offices close for it, and this table has not read the schedule that would.
• North Carolina. The public holidays statute names Columbus Day on the second Monday in October, but which days state offices actually close is set by the state's own holiday schedule, which this table has not read.
• North Dakota. The state's published office-closing list settles the closing question — it runs from Labor Day to Veterans Day with nothing in October — but not the naming one. North Dakota's century code does carry an Indigenous Peoples Day section, and the state publishes that chapter in a form whose text could not be read, so this table does not report which day that section names.
• Pennsylvania. The Legal Holiday Law names the day, but the act exists to govern the payment and protesting of commercial paper rather than office hours, so it does not say whether state offices close.
• Tennessee. The General Assembly designates the second Monday in October as Columbus Day, but the same manual records that the governor may substitute the day after Thanksgiving for it, and that the decision is made afresh each year — so whether Tennessee offices are shut on this particular Monday is a yearly call rather than a standing one.
• Wisconsin. Wisconsin's legal holidays statute puts a holiday on the second Monday in October and gives it no name, while naming the days on either side of it — so the record read here does not say which of the two names the state uses, and it does not say whether state offices close.