Oct. 10 (UPI) -- In advance Monday's holiday, the White House this week released a statement celebrating Columbus Day and singing the praises of the maligned explorer.
"This Columbus Day, we honor his life with reverence and gratitude, and we pledge to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory," the release said. Columbus Day is celebrated Monday.
In recent years, activists have called for Columbus Day to be renamed Indigenous People's Day. About 10 states have officially recognized the day, sometimes with different names, such as American Indian Heritage Day or Native Americans' Day.
Though he has been widely considered the person who discovered America, he never set foot on North American land. The Oct. 12 holiday actually commemorates the day he landed in the Bahamas. Also, he couldn't discover a land that was already inhabited.
Norse explorer Leif Eriksson is the first European believed to have sailed to North America. He landed in Canada 500 years earlier than Columbus' voyage.
