In late August and early September, travel influencer Gabby Petito went missing.

Her disappearance made national news. 

But what hasn’t been featured on nightly news is that over the span of 10 years, 710 indigenous women have gone missing in Wyoming, the same state Petito disappeared in.

“There are a lot of native women that are kidnapped and murdered every day just because they are native,” said junior Ella Ahlmann, who is Comanche. “The stuff that was just recently brought to light about the hundreds of dead bodies and unmarked graves found at churches and native schools (residential schools). I wish (media and government) were more open about that because I had to explain to so many people. Like, how have you not heard about this?” Ahlmann said.

In early July of this year, as many as 751 remains of indigenous children were found at a residential school in Canada. 

How indigenous people are portrayed in history books and the media frustrates Ahlmann.

“I wish they would open up and tell the truth,” she said. “Lying about our history isn’t good, and like people grow up thinking ‘oh, we didn’t do that much,’ no like there are so many things that people did to the native community that I wish people knew more about, because then they wouldn’t call me dramatic.”

All of those feelings, the feelings that get Ahlmann called dramatic, culminate on one day. Columbus day. 

“Columbus was a half-competent (jerk), who raped and murdered many people because he saw them as less,” said junior Ethan Johnson, whose grandfather lived on a reservation. “It’s an absolute insult to people like MLK who has a day named after him because he did something. We should take the day to honor those who were harmed by Columbus and his immediate effect and the long-term consequences.”

There’s been a push for Columbus Day to be renamed to Indigenous People’s Day and, recently, some states have listened to the pleas. 

National Indigenous People’s Day is celebrated on June 21 in Canada, and recently, in South Dakota, Hawaii and Alaska.

So what’s stopping it from happening here?

“I don’t understand why we celebrate this day,” Ahlmann said. “The only real good thing about it is we get no school, but I wish it was for something else. I hate Columbus day, why are we celebrating that?