goodbye, columbus
(since the observance of columbus day is today, apparently, thought I would see what the indigenous people have to say)
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GOODBYE COLUMBUS!
[The following appeared on a full page of the Rocky Mountain News on Saturday, October 8, 1994.]
An Open Letter From the AMERICAN INDIAN MOVEMENT of Colorado and Our Allies
When the Taino Indians saved Christopher Columbus from certain death on the fateful morning of October 12, 1492, a glorious opportunity presented itself for the cultures of both Europe and the Americas to flourish.
What occurred was neither glorious nor heroic. Just as Columbus could not, and did not, "discover" a hemisphere already inhabited by nearly 100 million people, his arrival cannot, and will not, be recognized by indigenous peoples as a heroic and festive event.
>From a Native perspective, Columbus' arrival was a disaster from the beginning. Although his own diaries reveal that he was greeted by the Tainos with the most generous hospitality he had ever known, he immediately began the enslavement and slaughter of the Indian peoples of the Caribbean.
Defenders of Columbus and his holiday argue that critics unfairly judge Columbus, a 15th Century product, by the moral and legal standards of the late 20th century. Such a defense implies that there were no legal or moral constraints on actions such as Columbus' in 1492. In reality, European legal and moral principles acknowledged the natural rights of Indians and prohibited their slaughter or unjust wars against them.
. . .
http://www.indians.org/welker/byecolum.htm
The ever-controversial Columbus Day is being celebrated this week in the United States but, in many communities across Turtle Island, the holiday is being reclaimed as Indigenous Peoples Day—a day of solidarity with Indigenous People.
RPM brings you some Native perspective on the history and context of this highly contested holiday.
Everyone knows the story of Christopher Columbus, a Spanish explorer looking for a passage to Asia for the trade of goods in the late 1400′s. With his three ships, the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, Columbus set sail and ‘discovered’ America, where he found what he called “Indians”, thinking he found India. The celebration of Thanksgiving and Columbus Day in America is now a widely spread and commercial holiday—intended to praise Columbus’ “discovery” of the so-called “New World”.
Indigenous nations across Turtle Island, however, have always disputed the holiday’s oppressive nature, which seeks to valorize and praise the holocaust that began with Columbus’ opening of the Americas to European colonization—and which has led to the dispossession of Indigenous lands, the annihilation of millions of Indigenous Peoples, and the destruction of native cultures and lifeways.
But the holiday is now being reclaimed—and transformed—into a celebration of Indigenous People’s Day, where nations, groups and movements have formed across North and South America to change and officially declare October 12th as a national holiday and day of solidarity with Indigenous Peoples.
As North American Indigenous Student Organization (NAISO) co-chair, Ryan Patrick stated recently:
“To the larger American community, (Columbus Day) is a day off work or school for the man who discovered America,” Patrick said. “We see the celebration of a man who brought with him genocide, rape, slavery, and set the foundation for the mistreatment of people of color for generations.”
. . .
http://rpm.fm/news/indigenous-peoples-day-vs-columbus-day/
= new reply since forum marked as read
