Serious question: If we are replacing ‘Columbus Day’ with ‘Indigenous People’s Day’ because, and I quote, this day “celebrate[s] an individual who was directly responsible for genocide, inflicting pain, suffering, and torture on thousands of Native Americans.”
…Then exactly which ‘Indigenous People’ are we celebrating?
Is it the Aztecs, who regularly sacrificed their own people, slaves and captive soldiers to their god? After which the remains were cannibalized by noblemen. (I mean the Spaniards had help from other tribes to take out the Aztecs....for a reason.)
Or are we remembering the Wampanoags of Massachusetts, who allied with the pilgrims in Plymouth to take out a rival tribe?
Perhaps the Cheyenne, who, according to one of their chiefs stated, “We stole the hunting grounds of the Crows because they were the best.” Sounds pretty honorable.
Are we celebrating the Lakotas, who helped the Cheyenne attack an unprotected camp of Crow women, children and elderly men, reducing the camp to rubble?
Or maybe the Utes of the American Southwest, who enslaved women and children from the neighboring tribe - then sold them to Spaniards in exchange for horses. (That’s not misogynistic.)
No - I’ve got it! We are honoring the Chimus of Peru, who conducted the largest known mass child sacrifice where approximately 140 kids had their hearts cut out in a ritual offering. (Also 200 llamas were killed, if that bothers you more.)
I’m confused, you see, because there are a lot of Native Americans who inflicted pain, suffering and torture....on other Native Americans. So which tribes do we celebrate? And why exactly?
Or could it be - COULD IT BE - an ugly fact of history is that virtually every society, in every corner of the earth, has conquered neighboring societies since the beginning of time. That was, and sadly for many, still is the way of the world. And the hideous consequences of these conquests --- are the evils of violence, murder, rape and more.
The Indigenous Peoples of the Americas - are no exception.
So perhaps we honor them, on a different day, that is specifically their own. A day to celebrate the beauty and contributions of the many indigenous cultures of these lands; and not focus on the brutal reality of their centuries of violence. (c.e.n.t.u.r.i.e.s)
And we leave October 10th to do the same for Columbus: Remember history's greatest explorer, whose achievements ushered in the Age of Discovery and Western Civilization.
Then we can all abstain from judging people who lived centuries ago -- by today's standards. And move forward with a more complete knowledge of history, and more importantly, how not to repeat it.
