Here are some things that, if you do them, should disqualify you from ever having a national holiday in your honor:
Driving civilizations that once consisted of millions of people to near-extinction through starvation and murder;
Enslaving people to force them to work themselves to death mining for gold;
Saying things like this: the Native peoples of the Caribbean “would make fine servants … With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”
Or this: The Native Americans “are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone … Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold.”
Yet we still have a national holiday in celebration of Christopher Columbus, the guy who dumped these festering accomplishments on the world.
If you’re defending Christopher Columbus Day, you’re not paying attention.
It’s great to see students in Amherst who are paying attention. Earlier this month, students petitioned to get a measure before Town Meeting asking the community to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day.
The resolution, which passed by majority vote, asks that, in Amherst, the second Monday of October will commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day “in recognition of the indigenous people of America’s position as native to these lands, and the suffering they faced following European conquest of their lands.”
About a week later, Northampton also passed a resolution stating the city will now celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day. Across the nation, about 20 cities have made this switch, including San Francisco and Seattle. Indigenous Peoples’ Day originated in Berkeley, California, in the early 1990s as a way to celebrate Native American culture and history.
One day should be just the beginning of official holidays celebrating Native Americans their history and culture. The way the American education system operates, it’s as if nothing was going on here in the Americas until Columbus dropped anchor in 1492 and “discovered” this place. But there are centuries of Native American history to learn about, and learn from.
I know there are people who are upset about the change, but booting Columbus from his holiday just makes sense. We shouldn’t have started built this celebration around him in the 1930s in the first place. At the time, the holiday was to mark the founding of America and the spirit that led to a succesful nation — all pretty good things to be happy about on the face of it. But Americans know so much more about how the founding of our country happened. And we can see now that the manifest destiny the nation’s forefathers practiced was a cruel philosophy of European exceptionalism.
I also understand that in many Italian-American homes Christopher Columbus is a source of pride, but his country of origin has always been a debate among historians — one that is complicated by Columbus’ aliases. He was never ours to begin with, guys.
It is right that Indigenous Peoples’ Day should replace Columbus Day instead of picking up the third Monday in October or another such date; after Columbus and his ilk did their best to destroy native peoples and cultures, it’s poetic justice to have these same people and cultures quash the slave-runner’s holiday. And if I can address online anonymous commenters for a moment: while, yes, there were indigenous people who did horrible things, that wasn’t the entirety of their culture. Horrible and evil acts are, however, Columbus’ legacy.
Ceasing the celebration of a man who said of the Arawak Indians: “they would make fine servants … With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want,” is not white guilt run amok. Nor is it an overzealous application of “PC culture.” The eighth grade students who proposed the Amherst holiday change were not brainwashed.
Once you understand Columbus’ actions, denouncing him is common sense, and common decency. Tradition and pride should not trump the truth. Let’s celebrate truth, in its many beautiful and devastating forms. Let’s celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Kristin Palpini can be contacted at editor@valleyadvocate.com.
