Jessica Crabtree

This October 12 – just like every other since 1934 – is Columbus Day. Most people could not care less as it comes and goes each year. Granted, there are some pretty ridiculous commemorations on our calendars; but aside from the fact that 17 states and numerous school districts don’t even recognize it, why is there even such a holiday as Columbus Day?

Columbus Day was first celebrated in 1792 in New York City to commemorate the 300th “anniversary of discovery.” A century later President Harrison issued a commemoration proclamation. In 1934 it became a federal holiday. “…Teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used Columbus Day rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These patriotic rituals were framed around themes such as support for war, citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and celebrating social progress.”

So what exactly does this have to do with Christopher Columbus? I can’t help the impulse to set a few things straight for anyone who cares to know.

1: COLUMBUS DID NOT DISCOVER AMERICA.
Even barring the obvious fact that American Indians inhabited the Americas for millennia – he was not even the first European to reach the Americas. It is well known that Norse explorers had established settlements on the northeast coast of North America 500 years earlier. For several generations they lived with their women and children in farming communities – and yes, interacted with Native Americans. Columbus not only never set foot in North America – he was no more than the first in a line of Conquistadores who arrived in Central/South America in order to exploit natural & human resources.

2: Columbus did not discover that the world was round.
This is a myth conjured up by Washington Irving in his biography of Columbus, and perpetuated by history books (along with the anecdote of Columbus and the egg).

3: The issue of whether Columbus felt he had found a water route to Asia may still be open to debate among scholars – but look in any history book and you will find that Bartolomeu Dias under commission by European monarchs in 1488 discovered that you can reach India and Southeast Asia by sailing around Africa. (Vasco de Gama actually completed the voyage 10 years later, opening the region to trade and colonization by Portugal.) Since Spain, Portugal, and the other kingdoms already had a water route to their prized destinations, THEY DIDN’T NEED COLUMBUS TO FIND ONE. (You will remember, of course, that Columbus never did reach Asia.) And if he really believed he reached the empire of Japan or India, why was his first act to kneel and plant the Spanish imperial flag, and claim the land for Spain? Maybe when Columbus came upon the realization of a New World, he felt he had to break it to his sponsors gently. (continue reading…)

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?

Examining the Reputation of Columbus: An Essay by Jack Weatherford

Christopher Columbus’ reputation has not survived the scrutiny of history, and today we know that he was no more the discoverer of America than Pocahontas was the discoverer of Great Britain. Native Americans had built great civilizations with many millions of people long before Columbus wandered lost into the Caribbean.

Columbus’ voyage has even less meaning for North Americans than for South Americans because Columbus never set foot on our continent, nor did he open it to European trade. Scandinavian Vikings already had settlements here in the eleventh century, and British fisherman probably fished the shores of Canada for decades before Columbus. The first European explorer to thoroughly document his visit to North America was the Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto, who sailed for England’s King Henry VII and became known by his anglicized name, John Cabot. Caboto arrived in 1497 and claimed North America for the English sovereign while Columbus was still searching for India in the Caribbean. After three voyages to America and more than a decade of study, Columbus still believed that Cuba was a part of Asia, South America was only an island, and the coast of Central America was near the Ganges River.

Unable to celebrate Columbus’ exploration as a great discovery, some apologists now want to commemorate it as a great “cultural encounter.” (continue reading…)

Birren’s color model is a useful extension of the color wheel, because it deals with color in terms we relate to pigments such as paint or chalk. More importantly, it includes a vocabulary for expressing different shades of meaning (no pun intended!) concerning the technical side of color. Most of these terms are used interchangeably on an everyday basis; but when used for their actual intended purpose they can be a valuable communication tool for the artist.

For instance:

• A hue is a particular wavelength of light on the spectrum (or color wheel); otherwise “color” – but more precise.
• A tint is a hue blended with white; if red is the hue in question, hot pink might be a resulting tint.
• A shade is a hue combined with black: i.e., crimson is a darker shade of red.
• A tone is a hue that has been desaturated, or diluted with both black and white (that is, gray), making the original color seem “muddied.”

Birren Color Triangle

It’s interesting to note that specific art eras, or even individual artists, can be classified by their signature range within the color triangle. Paintings in which tints predominate tend to be bright, airy, and imaginative. Tones are good at portraying gloomy, mysterious, or atmospheric subjects, while a tendency towards shades provides intensity and drama.

(Thanks to wetcanvas.com for the graphic.)

Courtesy of National Geographic.

October 5, 1877: Surrender of Chief Joseph and his band of Nez Perce

The Nez Perce, fearing military reprisals after skirmishes with white settlers, abandoned their reservation and fled 1,000 miles through four states in the blustery cold of a Northwestern fall. More than a quarter of them – mostly women and children – died before they reached the Canadian border. Their pursuit by the US army and their subsequent exile from their beloved homeland in the Wallowa Valley is among the most tragic episodes in American history.

“The name of Chief Joseph is better known than that of any other Northwestern Indian. To him popular opinion has given the credit of conducting a remarkable strategic movement from Idaho to northern Montana in the flight of the Nez Perce in 1877. The unfortunate effort to retain what was rightly their own makes an unparalleled story in the annals of the Indians’ resistance to the greed of the whites.”

Edward Curtis, “The North American Indian”

Click here to read more about the grueling trek of the Nez Perce and the events behind Chief Joseph’s legendary “I will fight no more” speech.

Chief Joseph: in Nez Perce, Hinmuuttu-yalatlat "Thunder Rolling Down the Mountains" (Photo: Edward Curtis, 1903)

“Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what you do not know.” (Rembrandt)