Posted on 03/19/2005 6:49:12 AM PST by cp124
Portland children would celebrate "Indigenous People's Day" rather than Columbus Day if the three Green Party members on the Portland School Committee had their way.
But other committee members say the board lacks authority over federal holidays and shouldn't even consider the issue.
Committee member Jason Toothaker is leading the effort to change the holiday's name. He says Christopher Columbus exploited Native American people and robbed and enslaved them. Many Native Americans view Columbus's 1492 voyage as a tragic event that launched the European colonization of the New World, he says.
Toothaker describes himself as one-sixteenth Indian. His father's grandmother was a member of the Penobscot tribe, he says, and he remembers that when he was a child, his father's side of the family didn't like Columbus.
"He opened the way for the slave trade," Toothaker said. "Because of the way he interacted with the natives, he should not be heralded as much as we are heralding him today."
At Toothaker's request, the School Department this week circulated a survey about the holiday name change to city teachers. School officials have yet to release the survey results.
Toothaker proposed the change to the Professional Development Committee, which is in the process of drawing up next year's calendar.
Pqiptes Dana, a research assistant at the Sipayik Museum at the Pleasant Point Indian Reservation in Perry, says the name change is a great idea. She says children in the reservation school celebrate Indian Day in September and go to school on Columbus Day, ignoring the holiday altogether.
"It's not one of our holidays," she said.
Portland School Committee members Benjamin Meiklejohn and Stephen Spring also support the holiday name change.
"I long have thought that this was the most hypocritical holiday we celebrated," Meiklejohn said. "It should be changed to acknowledge the people who were originally here."
Spring said the San Francisco United School Department, where he was a teacher, celebrated "Columbus/ Indigenous Day." Both he and Toothaker believe that celebrating a "double" holiday that honors both Columbus and Native Americans would be a good compromise.
But School Committee member Jim DiMillo says the idea is absurd, an example of symbolic politics that distracts the board from doing its job.
"I think the people who run the schools should make sure the kids get the best education possible," DiMillo said. "We have better things to worry about than what we call Columbus Day."
Camillo Breggia, former president of the Italian Heritage Center, says Columbus was a great explorer and navigator. Breggia says his actions more than 500 years ago are being unfairly judged according to the values of modern society.
"They kind of give Columbus a bad rap," said Breggia, 66, who in the 1980s and early 1990s led an effort to erect a statue of the Genoese explorer on Munjoy Hill. The statue was never built.
Breggia says Columbus Day should be celebrated if only because the discovery of America was a turning point in world history.
"What was done to the Indians was not very nice," he said. "You can't change history. But you can accept it for what it is."
School Committee Chairman Jonathan Radtke says he's not sure if the committee will even take up the matter.
"It's a federal holiday," he said. "It's not our issue."
Staff Writer Tom Bell can be contacted at 791-6369 or at:
tbell@pressherald.com
READER POLL
DO YOU SUPPORT the idea of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Day? Tell us at www.MaineToday.com.
Well, it certainly has a better chance than a 'Constitution Day' does.
I agree. As a white protestant gun owning republican voting male this is what we need.
I am an indigenous native american and I think I should be celebrated.
Neither my anscestors or the Indians anscestors came from this continent we all immigrated. The Bible believers think they immigrated after the flood and the pagans believe they immigrated after the monkey turned into a human somewhere in Africa.
So unless I am an indiginous native american there is no such thing.
Absolutely!
Just as soon as someone can prove that anyone is more indigenous than I am!
I was born in RI 70 years ago last January after my parents crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Ireland.
So what's the big deal about some Asians who were born here a couple of thousand years before me after their parents crossed the Bering Sea from Asia?
So? National Indigenous Peoples Day?
What's it supposed to stand for?
Bad Luck For Natives?
Good Luck For Natives? Give an Indian an Undeserved Casino Day? Give Natives Rights to Things They Have No Right To, Cause Us Whiteys Are Guilty Now Day? National Get While the Getting's Good Gay?
Or: National Let's Don't But Do Like We Did Day?
According to me, anymone born and raised in USA is indigenous. So there
So who are the "indigenous people"? One group migrates into the area. They get displaced by another group who in turn may be driven off by a third group. Later the European group arrives and displaces the third group. Finally, the European group is joined or displaced by other races from around the globe. Indigenous?
They aren't indigenous, they came from Asia. How about 1st Invader Day, then. And let's not forget that the Indians had slavery (not to mention human sacrifice) long b/4 Columbus showed up.
Nah, indigenous peoples' day would simply be too rowdy! We's celebrate by getting drunk, sleeping it off in a doorway soemwhere and relieving ourselves while asleep. The upscale among us would, of course, share this experience with a squaw.
Because they lost.
I guess after ten thousand years you get attached to a place.
I think indigeonous is such a strange word considering current science. I am sure some honorary day could be given if such a demand was made but if it is only liberals that are doing the calling then I doubt it matters.
I think that the Indians have gottena good deal with the casinos etc. If you compare what they have to what the Australian aboriginals have then you can see how things have improved for them in the last twenty years.
Indians fought wars with each other over land. Europeans fought Indians for land. The winners kept the land. Now shut up and eat your dinner.
Is that Ward Churchill's tribe?
And they're also Native American.
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