Numbers from Nowhere:
The American Indian Contact
Population Debate
by David P. Henige
recommended by Keith Pickering
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.
But seriously, Columbus should be celebrated because he is the one single man that is emblematic of the enormous changes coming from the discovery of the New World.
In a world of war and might makes right, the Indians were overrun by a superior civilization. They made war and enslaved each other. They engaged in cannibalism, torture, human sacrifice, body mutilation etc. They got their asses kicked by a stronger civilization: Europe. This sanctimonious whining about Columbus is a desparate attempt to get emotional reparations.
So let's agree there was slavery and war and disease on evryone's part and the Indians lost. Now what!
Wow! Good for Columbus. Discovered a new world, lived to tell about it, AND discovered viruses and bioterrorism. If he had invented the enema bottle, we would know where these teachers came from too.
You weren't even born!
Just a ping, figured you'd want to read this.
For a really eye-opening look into the issue of the pre-Columbian population of America, see David Henige's fabulous, spot-on book, "Numbers From Nowhere: The American Indian Contact Population debate." (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998).
Numbers from Nowhere:
The American Indian Contact
Population Debate
by David P. Henige
recommended by Keith Pickering
IMHO Columbus was a mere figurehead. Several Euro kingdoms and free cities were already trading with the Americas. His voyage made it official for purposes of establishing property rights.
As one of the few American Indians on FR, let me say that this is the kind of crap that gives us a bad name. This and the bitching about sports teams names like Warriors, Braves, etc. just piss me off. There are plenty of us out here that feel this way but you only see the ones that the media grabs on to like this idiot. As for me, I love the Braves and the Redskins, and think that Columbus was a great man.
That Columbus was such a great explorer.
That he talked the King and Queen of Spain into permanent settlements in the western hemisphere.
That his voyages led to the establishment of the great civilization and form of government known to this date.
That my poor grandfather, a Sicilian dirt farmer, came here for a better life.
That some Indians are making $16,000 a month tax free from their "European" enterprises.
That some idiots don't know how to explain history to their children.
Jarret Middleton is a Moron.
Jean Chadwick is a moron.
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