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Posted on 10/13/2002 10:39:33 AM PDT by Tancred
HAMPTON - Only two figures in American history have national holidays named for them: Martin Luther King Jr. and Christopher Columbus.
"That’s quite a paradox," said Winnacunnet High School senior Jarret Middleton, who will go to school on Columbus Day, even though it’s supposed to be a day off to celebrate American history.
Middleton, who represents the student body on the Winnacunnet School Board, is recruiting other teen-agers to spend the day on campus.
"It’s kind of like an alternative celebration," Middleton said. "We’re going to be on school grounds for the hours of a normal school day."
With school out of session, Middleton wants to raise awareness about how Columbus impacted those who inhabited the western hemisphere before European exploration.
"Christopher Columbus was a genocidal killer and spread disease and wiped out indigenous cultures," Middleton said.
Jean Chadwick, a Cherokee Indian from Hiram, Maine, was delighted to hear Middleton expects about a dozen other students to join him in calling for an end to Columbus Day.
"That’s wonderful news," Chadwick said.
The Cherokee woman belongs to a group called United Native America. They want to replace Columbus Day with Native American Day.
"To Native Americans, Columbus is seen as the great genocider," Chadwick said. "It would be almost the same for us to have a Hitler Day if you were Jewish."
Portsmouth resident Eliga Gould, associate professor of history at the University of New Hampshire, said such comparisons could diminish the memory of the Nazi Holocaust.
"The minute one starts comparing, one sort of empties both atrocities of meaning," he said.
Gould did not deny the validity of the word "genocide" to describe what Columbus initiated in the New World.
"The European presence as a whole basically wiped out the native population in the Caribbean," Gould said. "Columbus sort of started that."
Historians estimate Columbus himself captured more than 500 native West Indians, transported them back to Europe, and sold into slavery the 300 or so who survived the ordeal.
"The Spaniards relied heavily on enslaved Indian labor. ... Anywhere the Indians were enslaved, they tended to die," Gould said. "There are certainly moments when the Indians’ treatment was tantamount to genocide."
More fatal than slavery were the various diseases Columbus and other Spanish explorers brought to the Americas. Gould said European plagues such as smallpox killed as many as 90 percent of the natives from Mexico to Maine.
"Entire towns were wiped out. Entire nations," Chadwick said.
The Indian settlement at Winnacunnet, now called Hampton, was a ghost town by the 1600s when the English settled there. Small pox wiped out the Wampanoags who had lived there before.
"It was certainly a genocide in its affect," Gould said. "It doesn’t much matter whether Columbus and the Spanish conquistadors intended to bring smallpox with them or not."
Despite his sometimes atrocious behavior, Columbus is still someone worth celebrating, Gould said.
"He’s very appealing to the American imagination," said the professor, citing the explorer’s vision, courage and persistence. "He’s a great hero for those reasons."
Both Chadwick and Middleton said America should celebrate other, more worthy heroes.
"Columbus is no hero to us," Chadwick said. "That was the beginning of destruction for us, so it’s nothing to celebrate.
"We were here first," she said. "The first people of this nation aren’t even recognized. ... We’re really on the bottom of the ladder.
"We can’t change history, but we can change the future so our children can know the truth," Chadwick said. "We’re not Tonto playing cowboys and Indians on western movies."
While Chadwick and other members of United Native America want to create a Native American Day, Middleton is pulling for a Founder’s Day to celebrate those who crafted the U.S. Constitution.
"You could use a federal holiday as a mode of really educating the public," the Winnacunnet senior said.
“We were here first,” she said. “The first people of this nation aren’t even recognized. ... We’re really on the bottom of the ladder.
“We can’t change history, but we can change the future so our children can know the truth,” Chadwick said. “We’re not Tonto playing cowboys and Indians on western movies.”
There is evidence of Caucasians settled in the North Americas over 10,000 years ago, It has been covered up, By Indian Tribes today..yet it can mean that they (Whites) were even here before the Indians. who realy were Asians who also migrated..so they were never “Native”
also Columbus may have taken Slaves and 500 is no “genocide”...Indians also practiced Slavery in Many Indian Tribe Cultures. so it isn’t even a Moral outrage they are entitled to.
also coulmbus didn’t Plot to bring small pox...so it doesnt even begin to qualify as “Genocide” or that it was “deliberate”
Native Americans have no Moral High ground in any of this
They Treated their women like Animals and “property’ worked them like slaves, took slaves of other tribes..tortured prisoners with horrendous Cruelty...
Lied Cheated and stole... and by the way!!!
have you ever heard of Buffalo Jump? out in the plains of Wyoming? where Indians stampeded heards of Buffalo off a huge cliff where hundreds fell to their deaths? then the indians cut off the prime parts and left dozzens they didnt need to rot? many were probably not killed and left to suffer in agony. so in touch with nature, such great stewards of the Land...bullcrap.
If a name in History needs to be removed it is “Noble Red Man” they were not any such of a thing.
Let the truth be known.
Sad that the youth are being brain-washed. Columbus didn’t come here to spread infections. That’s just plain stupid. P!ss on the left.
If they ever dump Columbus Day, when would the Knights of Columbus have a reason to hold a parade!
;-o)
I hear you! In a nearby town we have a high school sports team named the Warriors. The school gym has a huge painting on the inside wall of an Indian chief’s profile with a full plains headdress on. The school student body is probably close to 70% American Indian and during basketball and volleyball games the team does a warrior dance, stomping on the hardwood floor, with tom-toms beating in the background. It is very intimidating to the opposing teams and makes me swell with pride to see our country’s wonderful American Indian culture in action.
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Up in N. Calif. in my home town the high school is also the Warriors. About every couple of years someone gets their shorts in a bunch and they have a county vote and each time the “Warriors” logo stays. Never the less these idiots try again and again and again and it we keep voting them down.
Glad to hear it. No one would give their own sports team an Indian name if they didn’t admire Indians. Does anyone imagine that “Braves” or “Redskins” is intended as an insult? People want to be proud of their teams. How stupid can you get to think that people would choose a name or a mascot that they didn’t admire or feel good about?
Now that you mention it, it’s not very politically correct to be a Knight, let alone a Knight of Columbus. But I don’t think they’ll change their name or their customs for a mess of political correctness.
PC or not, folks always leave me alone. Perhaps its the sword and the odd black chapeau with the ostrich plume?
;-o)
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