To me, Columbus Day is associated with a blistery October day where everyone sleeps in because everything is closed and there are no classes. The University of Rhode Island stripped me of that reality this year by holding classes, but rarely do I ever consider what the holiday actually celebrates.
The intent is legitimate; this is a type of founder’s day to celebrate Christopher Columbus, the person who “discovered†America. Is it worth taking the day off for? Probably not, but I’ll take the break for what it is.
The only problem, aside from the fact that it was actually Leif Erikson who was the first explorer to discover America some hundred years earlier, is the fact that Columbus was actually a terrible person.
Most of us know the history that our elementary school teachers taught us: that he met the natives there, called them Indians because that’s where he believed he landed and traded with them for their goods.
But that account of what happened, the toned down version, drastically undermines what he actually did. Columbus invaded a native land, which he then enslaved, robbed and tortured an entire population of indigenous people for his own gain.
In his comic, Matt Inman (a.k.a. The Oatmeal), describes some of these encounters as they appear in the book “A People’s History of the United States†by Howard Zinn. It’s actually pretty horrifying, but you can read the first chapter yourself online if you don’t believe me.
According to the comic, Columbus ordered the natives to give his men food, shelter and to allow his men to have sex with native women. When they refused, he cut off their ears and noses to send a message to the rest of the villagers. The natives obviously rebelled, but Columbus and his men slaughtered them using their advanced weaponry. In defeating them, he took 500 natives back to Spain and sold them as slaves.
Nice guy, right? So why are we still celebrating him?
The holiday itself has been celebrated since 1792 to pay homage to the 300th anniversary of Columbus’ landing, but was not officially deemed a federal holiday until the late twentieth century.
Thankfully, several cities around the country are actually doing away with Columbus Day, and instead have been celebrating “Indigenous Peoples Day,†a day to celebrate native Americans and American-Indian culture around the country.
According to the Washington Post, at least nine cities in the United States abolished Columbus Day this year, and I think it’s about time the rest of the country got on board. We should really be using this day to look into our past and look at the people who “were here first.â€
The native population in the U.S. is significantly dwindling, with Native Americans only accounting for about 2 percent of Americans in 2013, according to the U.S. Census. This rich culture is dying out. I’d much rather focus my attention on the indigenous population and learn about some of our country’s real roots, rather than celebrate someone who murdered thousands for some gold.
All history is important, and I’m not saying that Columbus’s contact with the Native Americans should be downplayed in any way. It’s still a significant aspect of America’s history and culture, but I just think we need some more perspective.
We need to recognize that Columbus did some terrible things to the natives he encountered and that his actions are not something to be celebrated. We should be celebrating the survivors, the natives who lived in the U.S. before it was “settled†by Columbus. Native Americans are the smallest demographic in the U.S. today, and we shouldn’t be commemorating a day to someone who almost wiped them out.
Sorry Columbus, but you really don’t deserve all the hype.