Columbus Statue covered up as LA Celebrates Indigenous Peoples Day

A statue of Christopher Columbus in western U.S. city of Los Angeles was covered up in paper and surrounded by fence on Monday as the city holds ceremony for Indigenous Peoples Day instead of Columbus Day.

A white cover was placed over the sculpture of Christopher Columbus and the block it stands on, and a chain-link fence erected around it. The cover was removed later Monday morning, but the chain-link fence remained, CBSLA reported.

Los Angeles joined the growing list of U.S. cities this year that redesignated Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. According to a motion passed by the County Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles, starting no later than 2019, the second Monday in October will be observed as a holiday honoring Native Americans, also designates as Italian American Heritage Day.

Los Angeles City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell is planning to celebrate the new holiday with students at the Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts and at an event at the Fowler Museum of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

O' Farrell is a member of the Wyandotte Native American Tribe. He led the drive on the City Council to replace Columbus Day and successfully argued that the explorer's connection to brutality and slavery makes him unworthy of celebration, City News Service reported.