State Rep. Joe Salazar, a Thornton Democrat, on Friday introduced a bill to cancel Columbus Day as a state holiday in Colorado and instead offer state employees a floating day off in October.

The legislation, House Bill 1327, includes a lengthy section that declares, “The Columbus voyage triggered one of history’s greatest slave trades, the pillaging of Earth’s natural resources, and a level of inhumanity toward indigenous peoples that still exists,” and adds, “Columbus’ legacy of abuse and disrespect is still readily apparent today.”

It’s a different proposal than a bill Salazar introduced last year to replace Columbus Day – it would still remain a federal holiday – with Indigenous Peoples’ Day. That bill died on a lopsided voted in a Democratic-controlled House committee amid complaints it was stripping a holiday from Italian Americans and handing it to Native Americans, an argument Salazar disputed.

Salazar says the new bill should make it clear it’s not about endorsing one culture over another but about refusing to glorify one of history’s most consequential monsters.

Besides, he told The Colorado Statesman, Colorado’s Native American community doesn’t want to take over Columbus Day.

“We’re not replacing it with anything else, but we’re still going to let the state employees take a day off,” said Salazar. “After speaking with the American Indian community and other communities, they were saying, ‘We actually never really wanted a day – this isn’t what this is about. This is about removing a state holiday about a man who engaged in genocide against our people.'”

But that hasn’t satisfied Italian Americans in Colorado, he admitted.

The battles over Columbus Day have raged for decades. South Dakota in 1990 became the first state to cancel the holiday, and numerous states and cities have followed suit, although some are instead celebrating both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the second Monday in October. Last year, Denver, Boulder and Durango moved to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Salazar said he’s negotiated with representatives of the state’s Italian American community but adds, “We’re not going to see eye to eye on it. I said I was willing to do an Italian-American heritage day and celebrate at whatever point on the calendar they want, and they said absolutely not. It was an all-or-nothing situation.”

At a recent meeting, Salazar said he presented the community with the historic evidence – this year’s bill includes a lengthy, horrific excerpt from the journals of Bartolomé de las Casas, a Spanish priest, describing how Columbus’ men would hack pregnant women and children to pieces “as if dealing with sheep in a slaughter house” – to no avail.

“They refused to acknowledge that,” Salazar told The Statesman. “What do you do with that, that kind of impasse? All you could do is move forward. This is just something we’re going to have to battle out.”

Salazar said he wants the bill’s opponents to know he remains open to negotiation.

“I want to be very clear,” he said. “As long as I remain a legislator, I’m willing to meet with the Italian community to do an Italian-American heritage day. I’ve always been willing to do that. But we just can’t have Columbus Day.”

Colorado was the first state to establish Columbus Day as a permanent holiday, in 1907, although it had been widely celebrated around the country for more than 100 years before that. It became a federal holiday in 1937.

The bill was assigned by House Speaker Crisanta Duran, a Denver Democrat, to the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee but at press time a hearing date hadn’t been set.