On Columbus Day, Dartmouth University hosted a midnight powwow for “Indigenous People’s Day,” where students stood in a drum circle and sang into the night.

“We smudged the drum and smudged everyone, we headed to the Green, and then we formed a circle around the drum and we started singing,” senior Preston Wells, a member of the Occom Pond Singers, told The Dartmouth, the school’s official student newspaper.

“They’re Southern-style songs, powwow songs,” he explained.

Wells is a member of the Occum Pond singers, the drum group that played at the gathering.

Approximately 75 students gathered for the event, which sophomore Monica Stretten, president of Native Americans at Dartmouth, said has been going on for 20 years.

Although the students involved said the powwow was not necessarily a protest of Columbus Day, many expressed their disapproval of the holiday to the student newspaper.

“I just don’t think Columbus day should even be a thing,” said sophomore and Native Americans at Dartmouth member Kohar Avakian. “In my calendar it’s not there.”

These students are not the only people who would rather see the day changed to “Indigenous People’s Day.” In fact, the Seattle City Council voted to officially rename the holiday last week.

— Katherine Timpf is a reporter at National Review Online.