European settlers to Native Americans: "Your shit is mine. I'm taking it all." [View All]

[Selatius]

As we take time out of our days to be with our family and celebrate "tradition" with a big turkey dinner and the whole nine yards, we should better understand our position in the world not only by examining where we are today but also where we once were.

500 years ago Europeans were trying to find trade routes to Asia, and Columbus, miscalculating the circumference of the earth, incorrectly assumed the best way towards Asia was to sail west. Voila! He had discovered North and South America, and this set in motion what would be known as the "Age of Discovery" in Europe. Spain would rise as, perhaps, the first "superpower" since Rome due in large part to the pillaged wealth of the now destroyed Incan civilization and the incredibly vast colonial possessions it would come to control from Mexico to Argentina.

To be sure, the entire world was rapidly falling under European hegemonic control from the coasts of Africa, soon to be the source of the infamous slave trade, to the shores of India, which would eventually become the "crown jewel" of the British Empire, and beyond to the shores of China and Japan. All the big powers of that era sought dominance and greater wealth, and the primary method was through domination over land and resources. Nearly all civilizations and peoples who faced European firepower in those days would be enslaved, occupied, or completely driven into extinction.

The origins of Thanksgiving Day are, in short, rooted in myth, but what is known is that the reality behind the observance of this holiday is far more bloody, far more brutal than the romanticized version the schools of America and the corporate news media taught us all. The real history is more likely closer to the idea that Native Americans were repaid their almost naive hospitality and tepid advances towards understanding of these new foreigners with killing, enslavement, and the theft of land and other resources. Take the idea and repeat it several times in slightly different variations and characters. Instead of Arawak Indians, replace them with Wompanoag Indians, and replace Columbus and his crew with Plymouth colonists. The general notion, all too often, holds up. The details are different, but the outcome is largely unaffected.

The point of this thread is not to end the celebration of Thanksgiving Day or Columbus Day, per se. The point of this thread is not to invoke "white man's burden" or some iteration of that idea. The point of this thread is to illustrate that many of the policies of today with respect to our government and the rest of the world are merely policies inherited from our forefathers. If people become aware of the true history of the United States or of European colonialism, in general, then perhaps people could better understand why things are happening the way they are today, and, with hope, perhaps we could all change course after "looking in the mirror" not just for our own benefit but for the benefit of those we touch, especially the Iraqis.

So you can go eat your meal with your family and give thanks for what you have. Give thanks for the relative comfort you now enjoy thanks to your ancestors achievements and your own achievements to put a house over your head for your family. Just don't forget, also, those who were on the "losing side" of history as well, those who fell to your ancestors. Americans would do well not to forget them. When those on the losing side of history fall, their legacy automatically becomes the legacy of the people who conquered them, whether the conquerors accept it or not. The only question is whether that legacy will be remembered and whether any lessons that the fallen teach us will be heeded. By heeding the lessons, some good can come from something so bad, and all can become better for it.

Your family enjoys Thanksgiving dinner today, but remember to "set a seat" for those who no longer speak, for those who have fallen and those who will fall today in the name of profit and power. Remember the past, in short, to learn for the future. If not, somebody else will have the misfortune of being visited upon by their own Christopher Columbus.

"They... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned.... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

-- Christopher Columbus