On Monday, as people across the country celebrated the controversial Columbus Day holiday , young Native Americans in Los Angeles marked Indigenous Peoples Day for the first time in their city.

After an almost unanimous city council vote in August, Los Angeles joined a number of other U.S. cities and states in renaming the Columbus Day holiday . The change is meant to recognize Native communities who were in the Americas long before Christopher Columbus discovered the continent and to avoid honoring Columbus legacy, which included enslaving and killing countless indigenous people .

Other places have also established holidays to celebrate indigenous peoples, from the United Nations International Day of the Worlds Indigenous Peoples on Aug. 9 to the Day of the Indian, celebrated in countries like Mexico and Brazil on April 19.

And some other U.S. cities like Denver, Seattle, and recently, Austin and Salt Lake City as well as states like Vermont and Hawaii, will also be celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day.

But the decision is particularly notable in Los Angeles, as it is the U.S. city with the second-largest number of Native Americans, after New York City. While the name change wont officially take effect until 2019 , many Native Americans are already celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day in Los Angeles this Oct. 9.

The name change follows years of advocacy by local Native leaders and young people, according to Marcos Aguilar, head of Semillas Community Schools , which mainly serves indigenous students. At the August city council meeting , young Native organizers gathered at Los Angeles City Hall to dance and sing in Native languages.

HuffPost spoke to five young Native Americans about what the citys first Indigenous Peoples Day means to them. Heres what they said.

Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.