Last Monday was a holiday for me, and I suppose it depends on who you ask - it was Columbus Day, or it was Indigenous Peoples' Day. It might even matter when you asked - in my workplace it was one last year, but the other this year; we seem very much in the middle portion of this ongoing conversation.
I hear quite often that Columbus Day is an important celebration of Italian heritage. I remember studying him in grade school - we sang songs using the names of his three ships - but I don't remember learning that he was Italian; I'm sure it came up as a fact, but I don't remember it being emphasized. It's been over twenty years, curriculums have surely changed, but I suspect when, or if, or perhaps most importantly, why Columbus is taught to today's youngsters, it isn't related at all to his heritage.
