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On Columbus Day, Correcting Columbus’ Legacy
On Monday, Oct. 13, schoolteachers across the nation should find the courage to speak the truth about the man who sailed the ocean blue in 1492.
Trying to explain to youngsters how this country came to be is surely no easy task.
How can you sugarcoat telling a fourth-grader that Columbus did not "discover" the "new" world - that he more accurately opened the door to conquering it?
How do you explain to a fifth-grader that the only measurable blood spilled in Columbus' encounter was that of indigenous Caribbean islanders?
Can you even use the word "genocide" in a sixth-grade classroom?
There was a time in this country once when celebrating the feats of Columbus and his successors was less complicated. Only a generation ago, students did not learn the full extent of Columbus' impact on the peoples who inhabited this continent.
But let's set the historical record straight.
Hundreds of thousands of indigenous Taino Indians were raped, murdered, and forced into brutal slavery as a result of Columbus' conquest. Much of the Taino population fell to new diseases such as smallpox. Extinction is all that remains of the Taino today.
Those who like to honor Columbus would have us believe that bringing up the darker side of the explorer is an attempt to blow the man's memory off course.
But these facts of genocide and land theft are not part of a revisionist, false history. In his own words spelled, out in his personal diary, Columbus acknowledged his scheme to subjugate the Taino Indians: "I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased."
Columbus' men rounded up 1,500 people and selected 500 as slaves to be shipped off to Spain. Two hundred died en route. This did not deter Columbus, who, according to historian Howard Zinn, later wrote: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."
Some defenders of Columbus fall back on the rationale that he was just a man of his time, with the prejudices that prevailed. But one of Columbus' own contemporaries, Bartoleme de las Casas, a Spanish colonist turned priest, spent his last years trying to wash the indigenous blood from his hands by calling for an end to the slave trade.
This year many teachers may stress tolerance of opposing views as they try to bring a broader and more balanced view of Columbus' legacy into the classroom. But a lesson plan on tolerance won't do.
Putting an end to the hero worship of Columbus begins with telling the truth: Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 not to explore, but to conquer with domination, brutality and - yes - genocide.
- Posted in
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Show AllOctober 12th is Native American Day in South Dakota.
Anti Native American bigotry is very strong in America. Example: The "R" word, REDSKIN is equivalent to Native People as the "N" word, NIGGER is to African American People. Yet, the Washington REDSKINS is the name of the Nation's football team. Do you think that the Washington NIGGERS would be tolerated? NO! Even African Americans continue to disrespect Native Americans by playing for the Washington Redskins.
Columbus was a genocidal sociopath, yet Italian Americans and most of the rest of America continues to actively support Columbus Day and severely punish those Native Americans who protest Colombus Day by roughing them up and arresting them.
Last weekend, Indigenous Peoples across the globe engaged in ceremonies and burned copies of the Papal Bull Inter Caetera. The Inter Caetera launched the greatest genocide in the last five hundred years, the American Genocide against Native Americans where an estimated one hundred million Native Americans were killed. The Catholic Church has to this very day failed to recognize the great harm they launched and have yet to recognize, apologize, and burn the Inter Caetera.
Welcome to Native American 101.
Even more than blacks, natives are the biggest victims of racism. Just visit my state and stay a while to find out.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Hugo Chavez took the pope to task over the latter's remark that the conquest of Latin America was -- welcomed, was the word? or bloodless? When I heard it, it blew my synapses out.
Despite the Vatican II makeover, the belief remains at the core of the faith, that only the soul matters, so what if the body, or 100 million, have to suffer a little?
Part of the aversion of the last & present pope for liberation theology is that it confronted theologians directly, unreservedly, with the crime & its long effects.
That's true. Every year on the 12th of this month, my wife wishes every day were Native American Day in this country. She is of Native descent of course and was finally able to teach me about her Native background and history after I recovered and reformed. I was surprised to learn everything about the historical background of the Native Americans, from frugal usage to public land ownership, that I now sadly realize that this is why schools in my state did not want to teach students anything about the natives. Sadly, racism in this state still persists be it rape, domestic abuse, killing, business cheatings, you name it. And yet, us whites and Indians in this state are just as poor off for being so divided up like crazy.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Balderdash.
"Columbus acknowledged his scheme to subjugate the Taino Indians: "I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased."
Writing "he could" transposes to a plan?
"Writing "he could" transposes to a plan?"
No. The actions and words that follow do. Didn't you read further?
"Columbus' men rounded up 1,500 people and selected 500 as slaves to be shipped off to Spain. Two hundred died en route. This did not deter Columbus, who, according to historian Howard Zinn, later wrote: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold.""
Now, if you dispute the truth of the facts that were presented, let's see your sources.
No gods, no kings
I wasn't disputing those facts, but neither of those seem to me to be "conquering" that tribe.
My point was that it seems to be common practice to take a singular point and extrapolate it to infinity. Look at bligh4's posting. The idea of putting 500 people on those ships is not possible. They couldn't even have carried the supplies for an extra 500.
But I take your point, if I'm going to make a comment, make it in full or be quiet. Don't just say Balderdash! I'll try to watch that in the future. Thanks for pointing it out.
***My point was that it seems to be common practice to take a singular point and extrapolate it to infinity.***
That does happen. If that snippet of a diary entry were all that I had to go on, I would not conclude "intent toward conquest" from that, either.
I think H. Zinn takes a lot of his history of that period and locale from Las Casas. I can't look it up right now but, if 20 was as many as Columbus could ever transport (assuming the 500 reference isn't to a subsequent expedition) that still says that he shipped AS MANY SLAVES AS HE COULD. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his character. The "conquest" label matters little. The point is he seems not to have resisted the easy-pickings available to him.
Why should ANY become slaves?
We can argue about whether it's fair to judge a XVth man by XXIst standards. But, as a practical matter, it's our prerogative to uphold our values lest we be tied to the ideals of the 15th century forever. And, at a BARE MINIMUM, acknowledging the other side of the "discovered America" equation I think is an improvement on the teaching of history. If telling the whole story leads kids to condemn the great sailor, adventurer, and navigator - then so be it. (From childhood, I always thought King David was a douchebag even if he did kill Goliath.)
Besides, he's dead. We're not hurting him or anyone else, Italians' misplaced pride not withstanding.
***But I take your point, if I'm going to make a comment, make it in full or be quiet.***
I would never deign to tell you or anyone to "be quiet."
:)
No gods, no kings
if 20 was as many as Columbus could ever transport (assuming the 500 reference isn't to a subsequent expedition) that still says that he shipped AS MANY SLAVES AS HE COULD. Not exactly a ringing endorsement of his character. The "conquest" label matters little. The point is he seems not to have resisted the easy-pickings available to him.
Why should ANY become slaves?
Agreed.
And I didn't think you were telling me to be quiet. I was just acknowledging the point that if you comment....something like "Balderdash" or "You're an idiot" without explanation is better left unsaid.
I look forward to your further comments. Thanks.
I understood. that's why I put a smiley at the end. :)
"I look forward to your further comments. Thanks."
Likewise.
No gods, no kings
bligh4
Columbus also reported "Your Highness must believe that there are no better people in the world".I would like to see the sources that he sent home 200 Taino on his first voyage, as I have always heard that contemporary reports were that he sent 20 back to Spain. His 2 small ships would not have carried any more.
My opinion is that yes, his voyages did result in the decimation of the native population of the islands- mainly thru disease and the cruelty of the Spanish.
When I was in school, however, I don't recall him ever being called a hero, and the consequences to the natives was definitley discussed.
His importance cannot be disputed however, as he is probably in the top 5 people of the last 1000 years in terms of his impact on the modern world.
I think I will worry about something OTHER than Christopher Columbus today.
The rather obvious point is that in his journals, written immediately at the time of crashing into the new world, his thoughts were of conquest and slavery.
What a great guy. (not)
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"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
Ah, it pleases me to again quote a few lines from Kurt Vonnegut-- from his 1976 novel "Breakfast of Champions", which remains vibrantly hilarious and relevant.
Here, he is speaking of the venerable Amerikan tradition of political and social leaders from the Founders onward promulgating "nonsense":
"A lot of the nonsense was the innocent result of playfulness of the part of the founding fathers of the nation... The founders were aristocrats, and they wished to show off their useless education, which consisted of the study of hocus-pocus from ancient times. They were bum poets as well.
But some of the nonsense was evil, since it concealed great crimes. For example, teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on their blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy: 1492.
The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them...."
rosie2731
This is the reason I think Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" should be required reading for every High School/College U.S. History class, as was the case in my granddaughter's high school in Ohio. She said it was the best course she ever had, and she adored her teacher!
Rosie
Rosie, I don't mean to disrespect Mr. Zinn but there are plenty of good Native American historians that will provide a better truth than Mr. Zinn, a non-Indian.
rosie2731
Stone, I certainly didn't mean to disrespect any Native American historians. I was just trying to point out that Zinn's history is a good -- and somewhat accepted -- alternative to the "normal" history books used in U.S. classrooms. In fact, I'd love to read some of the Native American histories. Can you please recommend some for me?
Thanks, Rosie
There was no disrespect shown by you Rosie...lol. I understand why Zinn is often referred to. Now that The United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was passed in September 2007, Native voices are again heard increasingly in books even though the Native tradition is oral. Even today many Native people are reluctant to read and write books for good and sufficient historical reasons relating to Native cultures and the ill effects of colonization.
Can you mention some good ones, please?
Joe
The United Nations' approval of a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007, includes language specific to the recording of history. Article 14 of the declaration states:
''Indigenous peoples have the right to revitalize, use, develop and transmit to future generations their histories, languages, oral traditions, philosophies, writing systems and literatures, and to designate and retain their own names for communities, places and persons.
''States shall take effective measures, whenever any right of indigenous peoples may be threatened, to ensure this right is protected and also to ensure that they can understand and be understood in political, legal and administrative proceedings, where necessary through the provision of interpretation or by other appropriate means.''
Some Native American Writers:
God Is Red: A Native View of Religion, 30th Anniversary Edition by Vine Deloria Jr
Spirit & Reason: The Vine Deloria, Jr., Reader by Jr., Vine Deloria
Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto (Civilization of the American Indian) by Vine Deloria
Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact by Jr., Vine Deloria
Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact by Jr., Vine Deloria
We Talk, You Listen: New Tribes, New Turf by Vine Deloria Jr. and Suzan Shown Harjo
Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto by Vine Deloria Jr.
Pagans in the Promised Land: Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery by Steven T. Newcomb ****very important book****
Shasta Nation (CA) (Images of America) by Betty Lou Hall and Monica Jae Hall
The True Story of Pocahontas: The Other Side of History by Dr. Linwood "Little Bear" Custalow and Angela L. Daniel "Silver Star"
Massacre at Camp Grant,' by Chip Colwell-Chanthaphonh
The Collected Writings of Samson Occom, Mohegan: Literature and Leadership in Eighteenth-Century Native America by Samson Occom, Robert Warrior, and Joanna Brooks
There are many many others as well. This should keep you busy for a while.
rosie2731
Thank you, Stone. It'll definitely keep me busy!
And thanks, too, for reminding me about the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. I was thrilled when that happened.
In peace and justice,
Rosie
The Patriot Chiefs and 500 Nations by Alvin Josephy are very good. I don't know if he was native, but he surely tells what happened from a very sympathetic view of the natives' plights and their heroic efforts to save their homeland from the invaders.
"the American Genocide against Native Americans where an estimated one hundred million Native Americans were killed."
Figures I've always seen in regards to the American Indian population was between 12 and 15 million. Where are you getting this figure.
I took this from above rather than posting it there because I'd like to ask for the best American Indian historian you have read. I need to research this more and your reccommendation would help. Thanks.
Favorites would depend much on what topic was being written about. The person most often mentioned is Vine DeLoria Jr. You can find his many scholarly books on any major online book store. My personal favorite of his is "God is Red," because he deals with Native Spirituality and the American Genocide. Vine's writing style seems oral but his research, knowledge, and insights are first class. He was both a historian and lawyer at the University of Colorado.
Thanks very much. I'll read that and what about Custer Died For Your Sins? You listed it twice above so I thought it must be important in your mind?
My mistake sorry.
Here are two of the best sources for the numbers:
Charles Mann puts the numbers at 112,000,000
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412113
http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096412156
David Stannard puts the numbers at 100,000,000
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0195085574/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-6668627-9400719#reader-link
And what's worse, is that Columbus had no intention of even "discovering America". He was looking for a route to China to increase wealth for the king. Greed pure and simple. I do have hope though. Two of my kids have gone through history classes in high school where the teacher was fully aware of the truth about not only Columbus, but American and World history in general.
Don't forget the gold. He put the natives to work mining for it. When they returned empty-handed, he cut their hands off.
Now perhaps my memory fails me , and I am Canadian, but I never recall Columbus being seen as a hero. He was certainly given credit for the discovery of the New World (Which of course is utterly idiotic given it was already populated) but he was mentioned in the same breath as numerous other explorers.
Now I know the US has a Columbus day, yet Columbus was certainly not American or British and worked on the behalf of Spain.
So what exactly is the mechanism or the rationale for making Columbus a hero in the American school system? I am very curious.
Columbus Day was celebrated long before 1971. I do not know the original intent of celebrating the day in 1792 or 1892.
In public school we celebrated Columbus Day with plays, dress-up, ship models, drawings and songs. It was partly done as a political nod to Italian Americans, much as St. Patrick's Day was for Irish Americans. One song we sang in elementary school anachronistically went approximately:
"Columbus said to the Spanish King,
I'll let you in on a mighty fine thing
I came to prove that the world is round
The United States has never been found ...
Let me fly fly fly stormy waters
Let me something on this great and something sea
Let me run run run round this great and something land
For the world ain't big enough for me
No No
The world ain't big enough for me."
The story went: oh he was a man of vision who knew the world was round, a clever entrepreneur who convinced the Spanish royalty to fund him, an intrepid explorer who braved all sorts of dangers and found a whole new world. That was the pre-Zinn, pre Wounded Knee, pre Sherman Alexie era "education".
No mention of those who already knew about this land, having been born here for centuries. We had no awareness of the genocide that went into this country. In the Bronx, the American Indians seemed more like mythical figures than real people. (I now remember we had an annual visit from Hopi dancers - it was beautiful but never connected to history.) We were innocent / ignorant of things. There were lots facts missing and lots of dots we did not connect.
Joe
I grew up in the outskirts of Detroit. There is an island on a lake where we were told Chief Pontiac spent some time. We never learned about why, exactly, or learned anything about the peoples and tribes after whom so much of our geography was named. What we NEVER were told about in our history were the wars that were fought as a result of the invasions. We never heard about any of the battles that happened right where we lived, about any of the great chiefs and leaders who worked so hard to save their country, about Tecumsah's great effort to unite all the nations to fight the invaders back to the Atlantic, or why Pontiac was holed up on that island. We sure learned a lot about all the wars and leaders in Europe, though.
I don't think even now the school history books tell about all those events that were hugely important and influential in shaping our lives and written about in the newspapers during the 1700s and 1800s. It would be like the German students today not learning about the Jews and Hitler and Nazism. I am also totally dismayed every time I see a plaque, brochure or website about a town, state or region where 10,000 years or more of the history are relegated to one sentence or paragraph, immediately followed by a long telling of the "settlers" and "pioneers" and all the things they did in the relatively few decades that followed. Excuse me, but the place was already pioneered and settled way before! Despite all the talk, we still have a Euro-centric, dominator worldview.
I don't know the author, and a quick Google search didn't locate this song, but here's a verse I still remember from parochial school days, c. 1960-65:
"♪ Columbus sailed from Genoa / With ships from Catholic Spain
It was upon October Twelfth / A New World he did gain
History is lots of fun / Three cheers for history classes!
Right before our very eyes / Each hero in turn passes! ♪ "
I can also affirm that in Italian-American culture, Columbus is, or was, regarded as an honored hero.
my columbus day story: two australian aborigines rowed across the english channel and claimed england for their people.
for peace and sustainability
That was GREAT!
We should put an end to the Pilgrim "Thanksgiving Day" as well, as that event also contributed to the death and extinction of native americans shortly thereafter. My heart goes out for, not only the Taino, but the Wamponeag and other East Coast tribes made extinct by the "saintly" Pilgrims as well.
Pilgrim Thanksgiving's were celebrations of the butchering of Native villages. They were not just celebrated once a year. On the second Thanksgiving, the one following the storied first, Native People were ushered into a long house and it was then burned to the ground. Nice people these Christian Europeans.
columbus day was instituted in 1971.
http://www.fcnl.org/intern_blog/2008/10/stop-celebrating-columbus-day.html
KeLeMi
Columbus day was celebrated long before that. I grew up in the 1950s and we celebrated it then.
From Wikipedia ... 1971 was when it became a 'monday' holiday. Here in Denver, it dates back to 1907.
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United States observance
The first Columbus Day celebration was held in 1792, when New York City celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event.
Some Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, the first occasion being in New York City on October 12, 1866.[1][2] Columbus Day was popularized as a holiday in the United States by a lawyer, a son of Genoese immigrants who came to California. During the 1850s, Genoese immigrants settled and built ranches along the Sierra Nevada foothills. As the gold ran out, these skilled "Cal-Italians", from the Apennines, were able to prosper as self-sufficient farmers in the Mediterranean climate of Northern California. San Francisco has the second oldest Columbus Day celebration, with Italians having commemorated it there since 1869.
This lawyer then moved to Colorado, which had a population of Genoese miners, and where, in 1907, the first state-wide celebration was held. In 1934, at the behest of the Knights of Columbus (a Catholic fraternal service organization named for the voyager), Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt set aside Columbus Day, October 12, as a Federal holiday (36 USC 107, ch. 184, 48 Stat. 657).
Since 1971, the holiday has been commemorated in the U.S. on the second Monday in October, the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada. It is generally observed today by banks, the bond market, the U.S. Postal Service and other federal agencies, most state government offices, and many school districts; however, most businesses and stock exchanges remain open.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
Like in Jebediah Springfield's case, its not the man that matters, but the myth.
Your exquisitely cromulent observation embiggens the entire discussion.
Besides Columbus Day, we should also look at what the Puritans did to non-Puritans in Plymouth,, the Myth that the Spanish American and Vietnam wars were about freedom or that our 2003 invasion of Iraq was to punish bin Laden.
Other myths about Columbus were that he was Italian. He and his brother both lived in Spain. They corresponded in Spanish, not Italian. When Columbus corresponded with a bank in Naples, he also wrote in SPanish.
bligh4
Columbus was born in Genoa. Italy did not exist.
Yep ... "Italy" was created about 350 or so years after Columbus. It was in the late 19th century, at about the same time as the unification of Germany.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
This was my comment.
Other myths about Columbus were that he was Italian. He and his brother both lived in Spain. They corresponded in Spanish, not Italian. When Columbus corresponded with a bank in Naples, he also wrote in SPanish.
I never said that he was born in Italy. The term Italian meant that he was from a country that spoke Italian, which Genoa did.
Actually, historical evidence suggests that Columbus was born in the Catalonian region of Spain. The History Channel ran a feature on him. They did a DNA test on his remains and concluded that he couldn't be Italian. He wrote to his brother and to his bank in Genoa in Spanish, not Italian.
I do not think one can ever get an accurate number of the number of Native Americans that died after the "New World" was discovered.
That said I think it important we recognize just how it was that America, Canada, Australia and other such nations became wealthy and economic powers in a few hundred years time.
We like to think it was because our ancestors were such hard workers, concerned with "freedom and Liberty" and that the political model of the United States and the legacy left bt Great Britain with its rule of law afforded its people the avenue to prosper via hard work , self reliance and the absence of an oppressive Government.
This is all myth. The people that came over as colonists, or later as immigrants were not somehow superior to those that remained behind in old Europe. One merely has to look at Ireland or Sweden as examples, once seeing millions emigrate and now seeing next to no emigration.
The reason they prospered is quite simple. They had the military power and the ruthlessness to steal the wealth of a new world away from its indingent population. There was "free land". There was "free trees" to harvest and grow rich off, there was "free gold and minerals" in the rivers and streams and all that was needed to grow rich was to take it.
To paraphrase another, what they found when they moved here was freedom to be sure. It was the Freedom to steal and plunder and claim anothers lands as ones own.
One of the single main causes of the American revolution, just as example, was the British crown closing the lands west of the Appalachians to further colonisation .
Geopolitics made this impossible to do in Old Europe as those territories were all owned by someone else (the Nobility) and the Nation States that had formed over the centuries had rules and laws in place to ensure it remained so.
Generally, its never the best and the brightest who sail off to go settle new colonies. Those are the people who are successful at home, and there is very little incentive for them to risk travel into the unknown to settle a new world. Nope, usually its the misfits and the screwups and the people who are failures or rejects from a society that sail off into the unknown.
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The territories in the New World were 'owned' by someone else, just like in the Old World. The difference being that the people in the old world generally had the same weapons and technology and would fight any attempts at conquest. That was the core of the 'rules and laws'. Essentially, just a recognition of the reality that any attempt to steal land in Europe would lead to a very nasty, deadly and destructive war that no one wanted.
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I was just reading a bit on Patrick Henry, he of 'give me liberty or give me death' fame. It was indeed the British crown's restricting of expansion to the west of Virginia that was one of his main complaints with the crown. He'd made money speculating on lands to the west.
----------------------------
"To know, and not to do, is not to know"
www.samsonsworld.blogspot.com
I believe there are about 100,000 illegal alien Irish here, so we're still coming....but the reason we slowed down is we finally pretty much got rid of the British.