In fourteen hundred ninety-two 
Columbus sailed the ocean blue
It was a courageous thing to do
But someone was already here.
Chorus:
Inuit and Cherokee,
Aztec and Menominee,
The Onondaga and the Cree;
Someone was already here.
Columbus knew the world was round
He looked for the East while westward bound
He didn’t find what he thought he found
Someone was already here.
Chorus:
Abenaki, Arapaho,
Chickasaw and Eskimo,
Conestoga and the Crow,
Someone was already here.
It isn’t like it was empty
space
Caribs met him face to face.
Could anyone discover the place
Someone was already here?
Chorus:
Beaver, Blackfoot, Cherokee,
Creek, Dakota, Guarani,
Mixtec, Mohawk, Muscogee,
Someone was already here.
So tell me, who discovered
what?
He thought he was in a different spot.
Columbus was lost; the Caribs were not
They were already here.
Final
Chorus:
Narragansett, Navajo, Kiowa and
Miskito,
Pensacola and Pueblo, Savannah
and the Seneca,
Shawnee and the Wichita, Shoshone,
Sioux and Yakima,
Were all already here.
Words and music © 1991 by Nancy
Schimmel
To the point lyrics
I like the to the point lyrics.
But there’s something odd about celebrating indigenous day on or in place of Columbus Day. Columbus Day, itself, should not be a North American holiday anyway because he never set foot here. If the “Carib’s” want to have his holiday, that’s up to them. But Columbus committed so many atrocities on the islands that the “Carib’s” might want to celebrate a Columbus the Criminal Day.
To really honor Indigenous people, Columbus Day should be stricken from the the holiday books altogether and Indigenous North American tribes should form a consensus to choose a day suitable to their cultures. In absence of that, I guess superseding the current Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day will have to do.