So, this is not what I intended to write about this week, but today I am trying to process a few things and this is where I go to do that so my wife doesn’t have to listen to me rant for hours on end. That might not be a very well-written sentence but that’s how things might go today. Grammar be damned!
So, what exactly is weighing on my mind today; besides starting back to back paragraphs with the word “so?” Well, according to my phone, it is Columbus Day. For those of you who don’t know, I am half Native American. What tribe, you may ask? And, even if you didn’t, I’m going to tell you. Stockbridge Munsee. They are a tiny little tribe that broke off from the Mohicans, moved West and settled in Wisconsin (of all places) when some of the tribes there took them in. Yes, get all your “last of the Mohicans” jokes out now. That’s what my wife would be doing right now if she was reading this. She says it never gets old. I might disagree. Though being compared to anything with Daniel Day-Lewis is pretty high praise. So, I guess I’ll take it.
So, I have a complicated relationship with my heritage. It comes from my dad’s side and I haven’t seen him since I was like 5 or 6 years old. Old enough to remember, not old enough to have known much about him or his past. And, seeing as I was too young to really get to learn about my ancestors on his side, I’m left feeling little to no connection to it. But, it’s there. We never really did anything particularly “Native American” apart from visit a reservation a couple times. My sister and I would get glares because we were half-breeds. Apparently to some, being half-blooded is worse than being white. But, that was about it. I don’t remember meeting any of his actual family (he was adopted) or ever celebrating any Native holidays. I never really thought much of it until I started learning about the history of America. Until then, it was just the reason my sister and I would get tanner than the other kids every summer. But, once you start to read about how your ancestors are violent savages who needed to be civilized via Christianity or murdered, things change. How would you feel if you were told that your great-great-great grandma had to be raped and murdered for the good of the land? Or that your great-great-great-great grandfather was barely human and was merely a scourge to this burgeoning new country? It makes you rethink things from a young age. To me, the “violent savages” were the ones invading, murdering indiscriminately and taking the land from the indigenous people. The “scourge” was nearly killing off an entire race of people. It’s funny how people seemingly always like to describe their enemies in terms that would perfectly describe themselves. Because of this, I knew I had to take everything I learned in school with a grain of salt; especially, with the “discovery” of America. So, I started learning more about this Columbus fellow everyone seemed so high on. I couldn’t square what I learned with how he’s regarded. It never made sense.
So (I wonder if I can start every paragraph with “so?”), every year on this day I spend a large portion of said day being aggravated that this is still a holiday. I do appreciate that in the last few years some states have started celebrating Indigenous People’s Day instead. Both my home state of Wisconsin and my newly adopted home state of North Carolina do, which makes me happy. But, for the thirty something states that still celebrate one of the worst explorers and humans in history, fuck you. And I say that with love, but I still say it. Why are we still honoring a man who tried to find a faster route to “the Indies,” failed miserably, then ended up “discovering” lands where millions of people already lived and immediately began to murder and enslave those people? The answer isn’t so clear when you look at the facts.
So (still going strong so far, though this one’s use is debatable), when Columbus made it to the Americas, his first thought was that these people would be easily conquered and would make good slaves. Natives, including children, were kidnapped, beaten, raped, tortured and sold off to the highest bidder. Columbus once sent a “gift” of 500 slaves back to Spain, with many dying during the journey. Spain was hoping for gold and silver and jewels and got…slaves, which they promptly refused because they thought Columbus was expanding the Spanish empire and creating new Spanish citizens, when, in fact, he was murdering, enslaving and chopping off the limbs of Natives because they weren’t bringing him enough gold (true story. Columbus was promised 10% of all the gold he found, so he pushed the Natives to find more at all costs, including, literally, life and limb). Columbus and his crew would round up girls as young as 9 or 10 and sell them as sex slaves. Columbus was eventually arrested and stripped of his governorship of this new land once they found out how he was running these new “colonies.” Here’s a written account of what one man (Bartolomé de las Casas) witnessed and participated in during his time in Columbus’s Hispaniola (warning: graphic violence):
“They [Spanish explorers] forced their way into native settlements, slaughtering everyone they found there, including small children, old men, pregnant women, and even women who had just given birth. They hacked them to pieces, slicing open their bellies with their swords as though they were so many sheep herded into a pen. They even laid wagers on whether they could slice a man in two at a stroke, or cut an individual’s head from his body, or disembowel him with a single blow of their axes. They grabbed suckling infants by the feet and, ripping them from their mothers’ breasts, dashed them headlong against the rocks. Others, laughing and joking all the while, threw them over their shoulders, shouting, ‘Wriggle, you little perisher.’
Columbus was personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Natives, including at least 50,000 that chose to kill themselves rather than be subject to his torture and slavery. The total number of Natives murdered in the Americas is hard to pin down, but I’ve seen estimates that range from 20 million up to 100 million with many falling in the 50 million range. The first major recordable change in greenhouse gas emissions was in the early 1600’s and SCIENTISTS NOW BELIEVE THIS IS DUE TO THE GENOCIDE OF NATIVE AMERICANS. Apparently all we need to do to address global warming is murder 50 million people. Well, since population levels are so much higher these days, better make it 100 million just to be safe. Kidding (kind of), of course, but that’s a staggering fact to think about when we are “celebrating” this day. Obviously, not all those deaths are directly attributable to Columbus, but as every child argues when they get in trouble, he started it.
So, again, I’ll ask: why do we still celebrate this man in most states? America is, or should be, better than this. Even most history books start with the “discovery” of America and go from there. Native Americans not only had their ancestors wiped from history but also their history itself. The tale told in many schools isn’t my whole story and it shouldn’t be the only story of this country, either. Native Americans deserve better.