Jessica Crabtree

(You can find the editorial version of this post under the title “Reframing Columbus Day” on Worldpress.org, an online magazine for independent journalism.)

Recently I posted about research positing a link between peoples of the Na-Dene/Athabaskan family (e.g. Navajo, Apache, Tlingit) and Central Asian refugees of Genghis Khan’s conquests. The connection, based on physical, cultural & religious similarities and linguistic and genetic evidence, has been proposed for decades but is only now being verified by concrete evidence.

The implications of such a realization are staggering – but no more than those of other recent discoveries challenging our conceptions of the early Americas.

In time for Columbus Day this year I thought it would be appropriate to note a few of the major convulsions in the established historical record that highlight the fact that the “era of Columbus” is now over. It’s already firmly established that Columbus didn’t discover America; and the illusion that the Americas existed in a bubble of cultural isolation is being shattered with every new finding of global interchange. But beyond that, it’s time to observe this ideological regime change by questioning whether Columbus is really so important after all – and what that means in the context of America’s colonial and imperialist legacy.

1: Norse Colonies & the First Native American in Europe

The presence of Scandinavians in North America before Columbus is well-established. At present they lay title to being the first Europeans to set foot on American soil. But one of the major revelations of the past year was the evidence of the earliest Native Americans in a European country – not as chattel transported via the English and Spanish slave trades, or even as diplomatic attaches to European monarchs – but as part of the saga of Norse exploration along the Atlantic seaboard.

The ill-fated Norse colony of L’anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland, dating to the 11th century, may have shared less than ideal relations with their Beothuk neighbors, according to extant records; but their association may have been closer than those records indicate. It remained for DNA science to reveal that many present-day Icelanders carry the genes of Newfoundland’s extinct indigenous populations, indicating that this Norse emigration was, at least on one occasion, a two-way street. This discovery marks a milestone in our understanding of early European involvement in North America and raises numerous questions about the nature and extent of the interaction between these groups.

2: Polynesian Trade with the Pacific Coast

There is a growing body of evidence that Polynesian sailors reached the Americas long before the 15th century, setting up an exchange that left clues on both sides of the Pacific. The Polynesians are an optimal candidate in the search for pre-Columbian contact, because they had both the technology and the motive to reach the Americas.

The prime evidence:

• Chickens – Ancient remains of chickens found on the coast of Chile predate the arrival of domesticated breeds introduced by European colonists. There were no chickens indigenous to the Americas; they are native to southeast Asia where they were first domesticated and later brought as far east as the Pacific islands. Obviously their presence in Chile could not be explained as a simple case of migratory spread. The carbon dating of the chicken bones gave them a tentative age of 600 years, right around the peak of the Polynesian’s Pacific expansion.

(National Geographic: Polynesians – And Their Chickens – Arrived in Americas Before Columbus)

• Sweet potatoes – As part of the Columbian Exchange, many of the New World’s important native foodcrops – including maize, potatoes, and cacao – were transported to Europe, Asia, and Africa where they became fundamental commodities. One of these crops, the sweet potato, has been cultivated for more than 5,000 years by peoples in Central and South America, where it first originated. Apart from direct human introduction, it is difficult to account for sweet potato cultivation by the Polynesians dating back more than a millennia. (Sweet potatoes propagate through tubers or plant cuttings, not by seeds that can be windblown or spread by birds.) It is even more difficult to explain how they came to be called by almost identical names in both regions.

There are even deeper connections on the horizon. Many researchers point to linguistic similarities and parallels in artifacts found in the Polynesia Pacific (including Easter Island) and in America’s Pacific coast cultures. Such suggestions of an information and technology exchange may be circumstantial at best. But there is considerable support rising from other fronts, not the least of which is recent DNA research confirming the exchange of much more than just trade goods.

3: Tibetan origins of Athabaskans

(continue reading…)

http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/opinion/63264152.html

Remembering Columbus: An Essay by Julianne Jennings

Departing from the port of Palos Aug. 3, 1492, Columbus sailed his maiden voyage of the Niña, Pinta and the Santa Maria. On Oct. 12, Columbus reached the “New World” and the Bahamas archipelago was spotted. However, the “New World” concept only applies to Europeans as Native Americans had been living on this Great Turtle Island (what we now call the United States of America) for at least 12,000 years. (continue reading…)

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…)