Columbus Day

[Tekun]

Seeing how Columbus Day (or as I like to call it, the Beginning of the End for Native Americans) is celebrated today in North America

I thought I'd post this up for info's sake, though I doubt that any RevLefter supports this ridiculous and disgraceful "holiday"
Its a great article by the very intelligent Ward Churchill, in which he unmasks the myth behind the legend
Something which is really lacking in today's educational system, is the truth about Columbus Day especially when a downright lie is being engraved into the minds of millions of school age children thoughout the America's


The 1492 "voyage of discovery" is, however, hardly all that is
at issue. In 1493 Columbus returned with an invasion force of
seventeen ships, appointed at his own request by the Spanish Crown to
install himself as "viceroy and governor of [the Caribbean islands]
and the mainland" of America, a position he held until
1500. Setting up shop on the large island he called Espa–ola (today
Haiti and the Dominican Republic), he promptly instituted policies of
slavery (encomiendo) and systematic extermination against the native
Taino population. Columbus's programs reduced Taino numbers from as
many as eight million at the outset of his regime to about three
million in 1496. Perhaps 100,000 were left by the time of the
governor's departure. His policies, however, remained, with the
result that by 1514 the Spanish census of the island showed barely
22,000 Indians remaining alive. In 1542, only two hundred were
recorded. Thereafter, they were considered extinct, as were Indians
throughout the Caribbean Basin, an aggregate population which totaled
more than fifteen million at the point of first contact with the
Admiral of the Ocean Sea, as Columbus was known.

It gets better (http://web.mit.edu/thistle/www/v9/9.11/1columbus.html)

Opinions and/or critiques of his analysis are welcomed

[Lenin's Law]

Very good read. Very sad and disturbing as well of course. A shame how absolutely none of this is mentioned during the "mainstream" media or in, as you point out, the public schools either. Too busy with their mindless celebrations and parades than say one word that might shed some light to people about one of the great tragedies in world history. I don't know if anyone has any information about this, but I'd be interested to see how the "holiday" is treated in Europe, particularly Spain. I assume more of the hero treatment but I'm willing to be surprised.

If you like, you might want to also check out Howard Zinn's 1st chapter to "A People's History of the US" and "Lies My Teacher Told Me," which devotes 3 chapters to the plight of American Indians.

[Tekun]

^Yeah, I'd like to read Zinn's "A Peoples..." in the near future
I've heard alot of good stuff about it
After Im done with the book Im on and then Mao's Red Book, I'll start reading Zinn
Or, I might just buy it for reference

[The Grey Blur]

Yeah, but try telling this to kids who get off school! :lol:

[Leo]

Columbus was a murdering bastard :angry:


Yeah, I'd like to read Zinn's "A Peoples..." in the near future
I've heard alot of good stuff about it

Yeah, it is very well written and very accurate, I would absolutely suggest it.


then Mao's Red Book

That was a boring read for me though.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

The FPM put this out last year:

Colombus day? There's nothing to celebrate!
On October 12th many Americans, especially students in first and secondary schools, will celebrate “Columbus Day.” They will bombarded with propaganda describing Columbus as a “great explorer” who “discovered” America.

The truth of course, is that the Americas were already discovered over 10,000 years earlier by the ancestors of the people that inhabited it when Columbus landed.

It has also been claimed that Europeans believed the Earth was flat, and that Columbus proved them wrong. This myth can be traced back to Washington Irving's novel The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (1828).

The fact that the Earth is round was evident to most people of Columbus's time, especially other sailors and explorers (Eratosthenes (276-194 BC) had in fact accurately calculated the circumference of the Earth). The only thing in dispute was the distance to the Indies (where Columbus planned to sail).

Most European sailors and navigators concluded that the Indies were too far away to make sailing to them worth considering. They were right and Columbus was wrong; had he not unexpectedly encountered a previously uncharted continent in mid-travel, he and his crew would have perished from lack of food and water.

So it was that Columbus and his crew landed on what is now the Dominican Republic in 1492, encountering the Islands original inhabitants, the Tainos. Columbus himself described them; “These people have no religious beliefs, nor are they idolaters. They are very gentle and do not know what evil is; nor do they kill others, nor steal; and they are without weapons.”

After sailing along the northern coasts of the Island of Hispaniola and Cuba (where he viewed mountains that he thought were the Himalayas in India), Columbus proceeded to kidnap several Tainos and steal gold and other resources to display on his return to Spain.

On his second voyage, Columbus took 1600 Arawak (inhabitants of Cuba) as slaves and imposed a brutal system on the natives in Haiti, whereby all those above fourteen years of age had to find a certain quota of gold, or, if they failed, have their hands chopped off.

Columbus was a mad man who claimed that God spoke to him, lobbied for a new crusade to Jerusalem, and described his explorations to to “paradise” as a part of God's plan which would soon result in the Last Judgment and the end of the world.

But the worst had yet to come. European expansion into the Americas eventually resulted in the deaths of millions of indigenous people.

As David E. Stannard, a historian at the University of Hawaii, puts it, “[the indigenous people had undergone the] worst human holocaust the world had ever witnessed, roaring across two continents non-stop for four centuries and consuming the lives of countless tens of millions of people.”

In 1989, former U.S. president George Bush I said that “[Columbus] set an example for us all by showing what monumental feats can be accomplished through perseverance and faith." This, which was said in reference to a man who founded the Atlantic slave trade in which millions of Africans were transferred across the Atlantic for sale as slaves and initiated genocide against the indigenous people of the Americas, reveals perfectly the intentions of the U.S. imperialism.

On the other hand, in October of 2002, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a decree changing the name of the country's “Columbus Day” to “The Day of Indigenous Resistance” in honor of the nation's indigenous groups. On October 12, 2004, after finding him guilty of “imperialist genocide,” a group of Venezuelans destroyed a 100-year old statue of Columbus in the capital city of Caracas.

And rightly so! Instead of being celebrated with a holiday, the atrocities of Columbus and those like him should be roundly condemned by all.

[Guerrilla22]

I was fortunate enough to have Ward Churchill as a professor. In his class we read De Casas' account of Columbus' voyage and subsequent slaughter. It was De la Casas' account that he based that article on. Unfortunately Denver started the whole business of having a Columbus day parade and despite all our efforts to stop it, it continues to happen every year. At least this year, I didn't get arrested! :D

[which doctor]

There's a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Book Got Wrong by James Loewen. It's really good and insightful. It focuses a lot on Native Americans, especially the Arawak indians on the island of Hispanola who were either killed or enslaved dropping their population from in the hundreds of thousands to just a few hundred.

[Lenin's Law]

Originally posted by Permanent [email protected] 9 2006, 04:02 PM
Yeah, but try telling this to kids who get off school! :lol:
Well, if this happened in a school I was teaching in, I give those students an assignment due the next day after the "holiday" where they would have to give an accurate account of what Columbus did in the Americas.

Besides, I have a very different view of how holidays and days off should be handled for students, at least for high school ones. I would be in favor of a system where at least high school students could have a limited number of personal or sick days, say 5 or 6 or so where they could use those days anytime they wanted without anyone asking any questions. HOWEVER, they would of course be responsible to make up any work missed during those days and would also be responsible for making sure they could make up any tests or quizzes on those days.

It is my experience, that kids who really don't feel like going to school on a certain day (sickness, personal reasons, etc) and wind up going anyway have a very poor attitude and it makes it very difficult for the teacher to teach effectively. It's just a body in a chair and not much else. So if by giving a student a few days of their own to do with as they please gives them a sense of empowerment over their own lives and elminates some of the worst days in which students really don't feel like going to school I believe this would make it easier on both the student to come in and learn and be the most receptive to the information the teacher is giving him or her.

[OneBrickOneVoice]

I talked about this in my lateset blog entry.

any one interested should check it out.

www.leftyhenry.blogspot.com (http://www.leftyhenry.blogspot.com)

[Lenin's Law]

Originally posted by FoB+Oct 9 2006, 04:19 PM--> (FoB @ Oct 9 2006, 04:19 PM) There's a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Book Got Wrong by James Loewen. It's really good and insightful. It focuses a lot on Native Americans, especially the Arawak indians on the island of Hispanola who were either killed or enslaved dropping their population from in the hundreds of thousands to just a few hundred. [/b]
Hey! Did you copy off me!?! (J/K, of course lol :lol: )


me


If you like, you might want to also check out Howard Zinn's 1st chapter to "A People's History of the US" and "Lies My Teacher Told Me," which devotes 3 chapters to the plight of American Indians.
(bold added)

In all seriousness though, I'm glad other people here enjoyed "Lies My Teacher Told Me" despite the generally balanced tone of the book and its playful cover it really is a good read that sheds some light on how the educational system works in this country (the US)

[RedCommieBear]

Originally posted by [email protected] 9 2006, 04:19 PM
There's a book called Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Book Got Wrong by James Loewen. It's really good and insightful. It focuses a lot on Native Americans, especially the Arawak indians on the island of Hispanola who were either killed or enslaved dropping their population from in the hundreds of thousands to just a few hundred.
I'm actually reading that book right now. The book tells about how American History textbooks glorify everything about America's past, ignore or justify its wrongdoings, try to eliminate any blemish an American hero made (Did you know Helen Keller was a socialist?), etc.

It also points out that the "all-knowing" voice of the textbooks is wrong, as we really don't have a 100% clear picture of what happened. For example, historians aren't sure where the Pilgrims actually wanted to go. The old myth is that the pilgrims were blown off course, but they might have intentionally landed in New England trying to avoid English-controlled Virginia.

I'd seriously recommend the book to anyone who's interested in history.

[midnight marauder]

Zinn's A People's History of the United States really is a terrific book. I'm one of the few high school students in the United States lucky enough to have a leftist history teacher, and I know damn well he went through hell and back to get it approved by the school. The first chapter gives a terrific account of the atrocities and eventual genocide commited by Columbus, Pizarro, and Cortes among others on the indigenous peoples of the Americas. I reccomend it to anyone who's interested in the subject.


Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. He later wrote of this in his log:


They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned... . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... . They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.

These Arawaks of the Bahama Islands were much like Indians on the mainland, who were remarkable (European observers were to say again and again) for their hospitality, their belief in sharing. These traits did not stand out in the Europe of the Renaissance, dominated as it was by the religion of popes, the government of kings, the frenzy for money that marked Western civilization and its first messenger to the Americas, Christopher Columbus. Columbus wrote:


As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.

The information that Columbus wanted most was: Where is the gold? He had persuaded the king and queen of Spain to finance an expedition to the lands, the wealth, he expected would be on the other side of the Atlantic-the Indies and Asia, gold and spices. For, like other informed people of his time, he knew the world was round and he could sail west in order to get to the Far East.


Here's the full text of the first chapter (as well as the rest of the book):

http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/zinncol1.html

Long live eductation.

[Tekun]

It was pretty disgusting to see thousands of ppl around the US march in several Columbus Day parades in several big cities, especially on the East Coast

I stumbled upon this quote, which made me laugh

"We take pride in our Italian heritage and we celebrate it because Columbus discovered America and he brings us together on this day," said Angelo Grande, the parade's chairman.

I don't think he was referring to the Native Americans

[Guerrilla22]

Originally posted by [email protected] 11 2006, 10:08 AM
It was pretty disgusting to see thousands of ppl around the US march in several Columbus Day parades in several big cities, especially on the East Coast

I stumbled upon this quote, which made me laugh

"We take pride in our Italian heritage and we celebrate it because Columbus discovered America and he brings us together on this day," said Angelo Grande, the parade's chairman.

I don't think he was referring to the Native Americans
Remember: nothing exist untill white people find it, then it officially exist.

[Jhé]

Zinn's A People's History of the United States really is a terrific book

Juice, i agree 'tis a terrific book, America has a very interesting history

Columbus was a man driven by greed, probably the most major flaw in the human species, i feel somewhat sorry for him...as he couldnt see there beautiful nature as people but instead decapitated boys for amusement.

The European society may of been technologically and economically superior at the time, but they were second best to the hearts and souls of the native people Columbus encountered!