Leif Erikson day was last week. Its an official holiday in the US, Canada, and Norway (among other places).

People have been pretty successful in rebranding Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day, even if the latter struggles to roll of the tongue. Maybe the same should be done with Leif's day. It could instead be used to celebrate Scandinavian-American heritage, Inuit peoples, or northern peoples in general.

What did Leif do wrong? Well it seems like on every occasion his people met new indigenous peoples in Greenland or Canada there was violence. The sagas describe the Norse colony in Canada , Vinland, as being abandoned after some Viking guy killed a native man while they were trading, causing a battle between the two peoples. Had Leif's expeditions established more permanent colonies on Greenland and in NA they would have probably displaced more existing peoples. Also, the other European powers would have eventually taken more notice, leading the classic colonialist countries like England and the Dutch to travel to America.

On the other hand, not all interactions between the peoples were violent. As far as I know, they peacefully traded lots of times. Also, in battle the Inuit usually gave as good as they got, not having guns, horses, or smallpox to contend with. And of course the Norse colonies died out, leaving all of the land for the indigenous people. Equating every historical migration or colonization with colonialism would put us in a bad position historically.