Frequenters of Dallas City Hall on Tuesday could hear the clatter of buffalo horn beads as Leroy Peña walked through the council chambers. Under the beads, he wore a red ribbon shirt passed down to him from generations before him.

A leader in the Lipan Apache Tribe of Texas, Peña said his tribe fought for Texas in the Battle of the Alamo, violating a peace treaty with another tribe to help settlers.

“You don’t see that in the history books,” Peña said.

The Dallas City Council on Tuesday approved recognition of Indigenous Peoples’ Day — a nod to the American Indians who lived on Southern land long before white settlers came and forcibly relocated them to Oklahoma. Currently Texas has only three reservations.

Council member Omar Narvaez placed the resolution on the voting agenda with a five-signature memo. Adam Bazaldua, Adam Medrano, Chad West and Tennell Atkins also signed the memo.

“This is a day that we right a wrong for you folks, the folks that started here,” Narvaez said on the brink of tears, addressing the Native American speakers who supported the resolution during the public hearing.

Council member David Blewett delayed the vote on the resolution until the afternoon in efforts to remove some of the references to Christopher Columbus.

While most council members were in executive session, Blewett and Narvaez met with Peña and Angelica Andrade, a member of the Red Handed Warrior Society, in public outside the flag room to work through parts of the resolution Blewett opposed. On the phone were other American Indian leaders.

By the end of the discussion, Blewett conceded his opposition to three other parts of the resolution, including one that referenced “systematic racism.” But he still opposed one line that said Columbus never set foot in Texas, and that honoring the figure “promotes values of intolerance and violence.”

Blewett, Cara Mendelsohn and Lee Kleinman opposed a compromise amendment proposed by Chad West, which still referenced Columbus Day but eliminated the wording that it promotes intolerance. Council members unanimously passed the resolution after West’s amendment succeeded. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Adam McGough was absent.

After the vote, Native American leaders said they felt the resolution had been “whitewashed” in the process. Yolonda Blue Horse, a citizen of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, said that by removing the line, they ignored the history of violence that Columbus’ role had on her community.

“Ignorance is alive and well in our City Council,” Blue Horse said. “The council members are still not willing to hear the truth of what has happened to us.”

A holiday in October in the U.S. for decades has borne the Italian explorer’s name. That’s changed in some local and state governments.

Six states and more than 100 cities — including Austin — have recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day in Columbus Day’s place. Dallas County, Tarrant County, Fort Worth and Corpus Christi have also approved resolutions recently.

Texas and the city already don’t recognize Columbus Day. But Peggy Larney, a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and retired Dallas ISD employee, said Indigenous Peoples’ Day would better promote American Indian history among students, who are often exposed to harmful stereotypes of the culture.

Native American leaders said they’re glad the day is now recognized, and that the vote still shows progress for Texans despite the compromise. City officials and community leaders will celebrate the day on Monday at Dallas City Hall. Larney said more than 200 tribal representatives are in Dallas alone.

Blue Horse told the council that the day will recognize American Indian communities that have systematically been eradicated with violence. It’s an uncomfortable history, she said, but one the city needs to own up to.

“We’re still here. I’m still here. Our history is still here,” Blue Horse said. “It’s important that this resolution gets passed so that we are not forgotten.”

Peña said American Indian representatives have also been in discussions with Gov. Greg Abbott for the day to be recognized statewide.

“If you’re going to live here and be a part of North Texas,” Peña said, “my history is your history.”

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