Richmond officially wiped out the Columbus Day name from the October holiday and also saluted a Black sorority that is preparing to mark its 100th birthday.

Mayor Levar M. Stoney and City Council issued a joint proclamation renaming the holiday celebrated on the second Monday in October as Indigenous People’s Day.

The proclamation recognizes the natives who occupied Virginia and other future states for thousands of years and replaces the Italian explorer who led a series of Spanish expeditions to the New World beginning in 1492.

Mayor Stoney began the change in 2020 when he proclaimed the Oct. 12 holiday that year in honor of the natives rather than the explorer that he called “a harbinger of genocide and displacement.” Representatives of five Virginia tribes attended the mayor’s announcement, which followed then-Gov. Ralph S. Northam’s proclamation renaming the holiday statewide.

The joint proclamation issued Monday makes the name change perpetual for the federal and state holiday. City Hall does not include the holiday, no matter the name, on the list of days on which its government offices are closed and employees have the day off.

Separately, the mayor and council also presented a recognition award to Richmond representatives of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, which was founded Nov. 12, 1922, at Butler University and is one of the “Divine Nine” Black Greek letter organizations.

According to the award, Sigma Gamma Rho has 100,000 members, including the members of the Richmond-based Iota Sigma Alumnae Chapter, which is 87 years old, and its two college affiliates, Tau Chapter at Virginia Union University and the Epsilon Zeta Chapter at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The proclamation cited the sorority’s civic and social activities in the Richmond area, including Operation Big Bookbag, the annual Youth Symposium and Project Reassurance that provides teenagers with tools and resources to avoid early pregnancy and provide better life choices.