"For a subject worked and reworked so often in novels, motion pictures, and television, American Indians remain probably the least understood and most misunderstood Americans of us all."
-John F. Kennedy in the introduction to The American Heritage Book of Indians
I hope everyone has an awesome Indigenous Peoples Day. It only seems like yesterday that our pioneer ancestors landed on the shores of BabaKiueria and learned to peacefully coexist with the local pale-skinned population.
Time for people to celebrate the myth of Christopher Columbus. The man who brought western civilization to America and initiated the divinely mandated conquest of a continent. He sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and for that we say thank you?
Not everyone agrees of course. The voices may be few and far between (in the mainstream media at least) but every second Monday in October more and more people are voicing their opinions. More and more people are stopping to think about what this day supposedly celebrates. More and more people are starting to reconsider:
And for those of you who think this will never happen anywhere big, here's a group of people who heeded the call back in 1990. It's just a small little place that goes by the name of South Dakota:
I encourage everyone to read a few news articles about the Columbus Day holiday with a skeptical eye. Columbus is a sacred figure for many Americans so attacking him is tantamount to burning the flag or defacing Mount Rushmore. But realize, history is rarely black and white.
500 years can hide a lot of dirt and Christopher Columbus is one figure whose popular image is suspiciously clean.
I am a graduate student at the University of British Columbia where I study modern U.S. and Canadian social and cultural history. I specialize in issues of myth, memory, and representation concerning indigenous peoples and the North American fur trade. In an effort to bring attention to these topics and put my thoughts into writing, I have started blogging. I hope you appreciate the results.
You are free to distribute and reuse this work so long as full and clear credit is given to the blog's author and direct and clear direction is given to the original content.
