How Columbus day harms Native Peoples

[azndndude]

Something to think about if you celebrate Columbus Day.
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096415880

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

1. I always enjoy this time of year.

Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

[sniffa]

2. does anyone actuaLLy "ceLebrate" it?

i mean, i have the day off, and i'm thankfuL for a 3 day weekend, but i won't be ceLebrating it.

[Book Lover]

14. Of course

http://www.sfcolumbusday.org/

http://www.columbuscitizensfd.org/pages/mainframeset.html


Of course, my movement to get our heritage day moved to Dante's birthday continues to go nowhere, but I'm a-tryin'...

[TygrBright]

3. Haven't 'celebrated' it since I got out of grade school. In 1991 I was part...

...of a big midwestern coalition trying to get it de-holidayed prior to the "500 year" observance.

We didn't succeed, obviously.

I'm hoping that if we ignore it long enough, it will go away.

sadly,
Bright

[maxsolomon]

4. does anyone really "celebrate" columbus day?

i didn't even realize it was this coming monday. ever since the 500th anniversary fell flat in 1992 its been a non-issue for most.

i suppose if it were used as an opportunity to teach the history of the settlement, exploration, colonization, etc. of the americas, that'd be ok with me.

[Taverner]

5. Well you could 'celeberate it' by reading People's History of the US

By Zinn

That will open your eyes up to the real story of Manifest Destiny

[sandnsea]

6. He sailed, he explored

For better or worse, he led the way to a global society. He is not single-handedly responsible for the annhilation of native peoples. I think focusing on him misses the bigger issue of stuff like manifest destiny, and various imperialist wars, Hawaii, the Philippines, etc.

[EFerrari]

9. Columbus Day is a very efficient metaphor for all of those things. n/t

[Bluerthanblue]

7. you know, I never really considered how this

"holiday" would feel if I were Native American. Much like I never thought about the "Thanksgiving" holiday from the perspective of the NA's- until a group staged a protest at Plymouth Rock a few years back.

After reading this article, and helping my son with his school project on the Indigenous People of North America, I feel even more strongly that we are continuing to oppress and abuse our N.A. brothers and sisters. I think people are willfully ignorant about this issue. I know i have been.

How can a place that isn't 'lost' be 'discovered'? How can the foolish 'word games' we play be allowed to continue?... similar to "surge" ... and "interrogation".... and "enemy combatent"...???
We continue to hide our immoral, unjust actions behind words that attempt to distract and deny.

Our history with the Native Americans is one of empty promises, broken treaties, lies, greed and oppression. Celebrating the beginning of their end, by holding a "holiday" honoring Columbus, is not unlike the idea of celebrating the birth of Hitler-

We really need to rethink this 'national' day of remembrance which celebrates this man- in light of who we, as a nation, claim to be.

Thanks for posting this.

blu

[Igel]

11. I never really pondered the history of where I grew up.

So I just read up on it.

Between the Iroquois, the Susquehannock, the British, and even the Powhatan, the Piscataway didn't really have much of a chance. Perhaps without the British things would have eventually shifted their way; perhaps not. Alternative realities are fun mental exercises, but no more than that.

Of course, the British were the latecomers to the party, and rather peripheral--plagues spread without their exerting any effort, and probably without their knowledge. My favorite bits were how the Susquehannock simply claimed "sovereignty" over the area--and backed it up with the destruction of some villages. Some smaller tribes didn't like it, were defeated, and either assimilated or dispersed to other tribes in the south and west (where they were mostly assimilated). Later the noble Haudenosee repeated the Susquehannock's power and land grab and were equally (a) bloodthirsty, (b) imperialistic, and (c) assimilationist, only to have the English stomp them; some Piscataway survived.

Power politics and arms races. Imperialism and colonialism. Competition for resources and genocide. All without "discovery", and without any need to try to assuage guilt or justify it by recourse to "discovery". (And, to be honest, European colonialization didn't need the fig leaf, either.)

[Bluerthanblue]

12. please forgive me if

I am mis-reading your post. I can sometimes be pretty obtuse. Are you meaning to say that the N.A.'s fought among themselves, and so- without Europeans/people from the "Old World" interfering, they were doomed by their own kind?-
If I'm hearing you- I have to say, I completely disagree- on many levels. I won't say more, because I find it hard to believe that is what you are saying- please help me understand.

thanks,
blu

[piedmont]

18. The poster didn't say that ALL native Americans were "doomed by their own kind"

He/she said that they fought wars very much like the Europeans did and noted that one tribe in particular seemed doomed because of their precarious position.

[Bluerthanblue]

19. I just wish they would clarify the point-

all humans are vulnerable to being "doomed"-
hell, none of us are going to get out of here alive-

What troubles me is the notion that if I'm hearing the message correctly- then Igil is saying in effect-
"hey, they were going to be decimated anyway- does it matter if it was by another "tribe"- or by outsiders"-

That is not a perspective i can either agree with, or leave un-challenged.

:shrug:

Thanks for sharing your perspective of what is being said.

:hi:

[Igel]

20. Perhaps I wasn't clear.

I don't see any reason to think that the indigenous population of N. America was much different from the populations of Europe in 1 AD, and that difference was primarily technology. They had confederations, they had imperialism. Tribal groups were born by splitting and vanished through warfare or assimilation. But the idea of either continent being mostly depopulated isn't at issue.

They were both limited by available resources and technology. But they were both human, which is to say, primates.

[Bluerthanblue]

24. ok....

.... thanks- I feel pretty stupid, cause i'm still not sure I've gotten the 'gist' of your message.
The first people are also believed to have arrived in the americas some 14,000 yrs ago. After the arrival of Columbus, the population of the people he first encountered was decimated.

........
On December 6, 1492, nine weeks after his discovery of America, Columbus made his second landing at Mole St. Nicholas in what is now north Haiti. By the end of the year he had founded a settlement there by the name of La Navidad. Columbus dubbed the Taínos "Indians", introducing an irritating ambiguity into the Spanish and English languages that persists till this day. The famous Jesuit missionary and historiographer, Bartolomé de las Casas, wrote in 1561, "There were 60,000 people living on this island (when I arrived in 1508), including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over 3,000,000 people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this?" Some authorities think that de las Casas, who in general was a meticulous writer, may have exaggerated the Taíno death-toll, and numerous estimates are in existence, with a consensus centering at about 1,000,000. By 1531, Taíno population was down to 600.

So what happened? First of all the Spaniards were vectors of a number of foreign diseases, like smallpox, against which the Taínos had not developed immunities. More importantly though, the Taínos were enslaved by the Spaniards and worked to death in the mines and plantations they established on Hispaniola. Columbus imposed a burdensome tribute (tax) on every Taíno, which if he failed to pay, he would suffer mutilation or execution. Revolts against forced labor were put down mercilessly by the Spaniards, involving further deaths. By mid-fifteenth century, the Taínos were for all intents and purposes extinct, though there is a Taíno-Spanish creole still spoken in the area, and there are those who claim ancestry.......

http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/apr/article385.html


don't want to drag this off on a tangent- (bad habit of mine)

peace~

[H2O Man]

13. silly n/t

[Igel]

17. Which part?

Seriously, I was surprised to read about the Susquehannock. I knew nothing about the Piscataway. I'm not aware of ever having heard about them or their allied or component tribes, even the one that would have been dominant where I grew up.

I knew that the Iroquoian Confederacy had been subjugating tribes down in Maryland, but hadn't really paid any attention to it, or realized how they fought--and eventually pretty much destroyed and assimilated--the Susquehannock.

People are people.

[jeffrey_X]

23. "but they are rich! They own all of the casinos!"

I hate when people try to justify their suffering with this type of bullshit. I hear it all of the time.

[Bluerthanblue]

26. rich?-

even if they were, there are so many more important things than money.

I agree with you about people minimizing the suffering of others- (but in reality, i think it is more of an attempt to cancel out thier own guilt and shame) by playing those kind of mind/word games.

:hi:
peace~
blu

[againes654]

8. I refuse to celebrate Columbus Day

after reading Howard Zinn's A Peoples History of the United States. Columbus was the originator of genocide.

I will proudly denounce Columbus Day this year for the first time!!!

[EFerrari]

10. We taught our kids that Europeans were invaders, not "explorers".

Made for some interesting conversations with their grade school teachers. :evilgrin:

[KamaAina]

15. We don't have it in Hawai'i any more

I mean, duh, Columbus never sailed in the Pacific! For a while they called it "Discoverers' Day", then they dropped it altoghether, 'cause we have so many other local holidays like Kamehameha Day (June 11), Prince Kuhio Day (March 26), and Statehood Day (third Friday in August).

Sure, it's great that we're not disrespecting indignous peoples and all, but I'm looking at nonstop five-day weeks until Veterans Day!

edit: we

[RiverStone]

16. kicked

It is so easy for the dominant culture in society to acknowledge something culturally relevant at the expense of another culture.

If only we could walk in other people(s)shoes...

[AspenRose]

21. .

And that's all I have to say about that.

[Rage for Order]

22. dear god

:eyes:

[otherlander]

25. I think that most people don't think about Christopher Columbus.

I think they just like having a day off, if they do.

But yes, I don't think he's someone we should be treating like a hero.

[JuniperLea]

27. I prefer the term "American Indian"

A lot of people are native Americans, having been born here.


My people met my people at Plymoth Rock... you have no idea the angst I feel.