The change was led by an 8th-grade student claiming that by “celebrating Columbus, we’re celebrating genocide.”

AMHERST — By a majority vote, Amherst Town Meeting on Wednesday night adopted a resolution to commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day.

Students in Matthew Venditti’s eighth grade class brought the resolution after studying Christopher Columbus, the Italian explorer who set the stage for European colonization of the Americas with four trips across the Atlantic Ocean under the Spanish flag in the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

“Celebrating Columbus, we’re celebrating genocide,” Amherst Middle School student Aarti Lamberg told the meeting.

The resolution asked that, in Amherst, the second Monday of October will commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day “in recognition of the indigenous people of America’s position as native to these lands, and the suffering they faced following European conquest of their lands.”

Town Meeting member Robert Biaggi asked to amend the resolution to keep Columbus Day on the second Monday and Indigenous Peoples’ Day on the third Monday of October. “Columbus was a person of his time.” Biaggi said. That motion was voted down.

The students want the town to recognize Indigenous Peoples’ Day – a holiday with roots in Berkeley, California, that honors Native American history and culture instead of Columbus.