[Source](https://freebeacon.com/politics/this-group-helped-cancel-columbus-day-and-pardon-cop-killer-leonard-peltier-now-its-helping-plan-americas-250th-birthday-bash/) > Former Obama administration official Rosie Rios, who chairs the taxpayer-funded America250 commission overseeing next year's semiquincentennial celebration, tapped to help organize the festivities a left-wing nonprofit which has been the driving force behind efforts to remove Christopher Columbus memorials and cancel the federal holiday honoring the famed explorer. > The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) has also spearheaded efforts to rename the Washington Redskins football team and successfully lobbied then-president Joe Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, the American Indian Movement leader who murdered two FBI agents in 1975. > Rios, whom Biden appointed to lead America250 in 2022, selected NCAI and four other "nonpartisan" groups last year to "scale and execute America250 programming." NCAI will serve as the "subject-matter" expert on Indigenous culture and history, according to America250. > But NCAI is far from nonpartisan, taking millions of dollars in donations from liberal charities like the Ford Foundation and Hewlett Foundation, in addition to $6,740 in contributions from the Democratic National Committee since 2023. > That could draw additional scrutiny for the commission and Rios, who has already faced calls for her removal from America250 over her criticism of Trump.