Jessica Crabtree

Continued from Columbus Day, Part 1:

In view of all these well-acknowledged facts it’s hard to believe why the mythology of Columbus has endured so long. To today’s Native Americans – who have to put up with the obnoxious persistence of such blatantly ignorant celebrations year after year – it was these initial encounters of imperial Europeans with the indigenous peoples of the Americas that set the pattern for the exploitation that the Columbus Day tradition parades around under the labels of progress, discovery, and civilization. Perhaps it’s the Indians themselves who are best qualified to express this:

“Columbus is symbolic of the ongoing cultural encounter within the Americas, and of European settling that proved immediately deadly and oppressive to Native peoples. His writings are scrutinized, and his motives and actions are increasingly condemned, by many who study them. Columbus introduced the pattern of colonization, Christianization and slavery that characterized the conquest: first by Spanish and later by Portuguese, Dutch, French and English powers.

Admittedly, Columbus was a man of his times and of his culture and training. He was as well a mystic of the Catholic prophetic tradition, a man driven by the ambition of a brilliant intuition to find the mysterious and coveted western route to the Orient; he was an adventurer who sought to gain immense riches, guaranteed by wars of conquest, to make himself a man of great wealth. For this, as was the custom of his time, his mindset accepted and welcomed the possibility of mass killing to reduce whole peoples to servitude, to serve and die as slaves.

Denial of nationhood and even of humanity followed quickly on the heels of contact, with wars of conquest always coming close behind. Columbus led the way into the holocaust of the Caribbean but his deed repeated itself and reproduced itself, first south and then north, over and over, regardless of initial greetings (mostly friendly) by Native peoples. Five hundred years have gone by; and to the Native peoples, the relative gains in scientific advancement do not make up for the horrendous loss of life, liberty and, particularly, the denial of the happy pursuit of self-determined cultures and societies.”

from Editor’s Report, Indian Country Today

So, most of us don’t celebrate Columbus Day anyway. And many of us may not care what effect it has on the American Indian communities of this continent.

But we are responsible for taking our history seriously and making ourselves aware of the facts. We can’t change our past, but the effort we put into knowing the truth is a reflection of who we are today – and indifference is just not a great reflection on all the good things that America is supposed to stand for – not the hype and whitewash – but things like justice, liberty, and truth.

Maybe this October 12 will be an opportunity – what will we pass on to the next generation about Columbus Day?