By James Strong
On October 13, many of us celebrated Columbus Day, a day bathed in controversy. The holiday is so controversial that the Portland, Oregon, Public School System and Seattle, Washington, replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day.
They joined Berkeley, California, and Minneapolis, Minnesota, as well as other municipalities across the country, that have either canceled Columbus Day, replaced it or celebrated as an alternative their own versions of Indigenous People’s Day.
In fact, many Americans wonder why Columbus Day is a federal holiday in the first place. To many Italian-Americans and right-wing whites, Christopher Columbus was simply the Italian explorer and navigator who discovered America in 1492.
So in 1934, when Italian community leaders and the Knights of Columbus, the world’s largest Catholic fraternal service organization, convinced Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt to declare Columbus Day a federal holiday, they thought they had accomplished an honorable feat for an honorable man.
But who would have known that Columbus was much more than just an explorer and navigator? Who would have known that he was also a ruthless racist, a demonic slave trader, a mass murderer, a sex trafficker and sex offender, a thief and liar, a greedy and unscrupulous business man and a terrorist who would make Osama Bin Laden and the Confederate States of America envy his accomplishments? Who would have known, except the victims of his plunder and carnage?
And, of course, history and truth knew, and are ashamed.
On his 1492 voyage, Columbus promised a reward offered by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to whomever first spotted land. But Columbus was such a cheapskate that after his sailor Rodrigo de Triana saw land, Columbus said the man only saw a glow the night before, and claimed the reward for himself.
Also, gaining a reputation for cruelty and heartlessness put Columbus at odds with the authorities and monarchs he labored for.
For example, Catholic law forbade the enslavement of Christians. How did Columbus dance around this problem? He simply refused to baptize the native people of Hispaniola.
Moreover, the man who replaced Columbus as governor of the Indies, Francisco De Bobadilla, arrested Columbus and his two brothers, put them in chains and shipped them back to Spain to answer for their crimes against the Arawaks, one of the native groups Columbus found on Hispaniola.
What crimes did Columbus commit against the Arawaks? Well, he forced them to work in his gold mines until they died of exhaustion. If a worker did not deliver his full quota of gold dust by Columbus’ deadline, soldiers would cut off the man’s hands and tie them around his neck to send a message. That occurred on his first voyage to the Americas.
On his second trip, Columbus brought cannons and attack dogs. If a native resisted slavery, he would cut off a nose or an ear. If slaves tried to escape, he had them burned alive. If escapees made it to the lush, green grass of the jungle, he sent the attack dogs to hunt them down. And when the dogs caught them, they tore off the arms and legs of the screaming natives.
Even more cruel than that, if the Spaniards ran short of meat to feed the dogs, Columbus allowed his men to kill Arawak babies for dog food. But, quite ironically, even Columbus’ men reacted with joy when they were sent to arrest him.
Yet, because Columbus lived at a time when cutting off the nose of a rebellious slave was recreation and molesting a child was as acceptable as playing dice, supporters of Columbus believe his reputation does not deserve the savage condemnations reserved for serial killers and sex offenders. But the gas chamber makes no distinction between the past and the present.
In the catalog of the world’s worst perpetrators of terror and mass murder, history ranks Columbus in the top 20, somewhere between Hitler and Caligula, somewhere above Nero but below Vlad the Impaler.
That’s why Indigenous People’s Day makes so much sense. As Columbus Day celebrates the oppression of indigenous people throughout the New World, it is natural for victims of the oppression to supplant Columbus Day with a holiday of their own.
So why do we have to make a choice between Columbus Day and Indigenous People’s Day? Indigenous People’s Day may shame Italians, but Columbus Day offends almost everyone else. Sometimes, it’s better to endure shame for the sake of justice.
Hence, a calm conscience finds no wrong in replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day (or any other appropriate holiday for that matter). Because what Congress and Roosevelt did dishonorably, Portland and Seattle rectified honorably.
Copyright © 2014 by James Strong. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of this column, or any part of this column, without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful. Send your comments to strongpoints123@gmail.com.
