This work is in the public domain in the United States
Today I am enjoying what appears to be a disappearing commodity: the three day weekend.
But, I am not celebrating the “accomplishments” of Christopher Columbus, who chanced on the Americas in his quest for riches and found them in his own form of “brown gold” i.e., the native peoples of the long-inhabited “New World,” whom he captured and sold or gave away in the thousands.
How can one honor such a man?
* On encountering the native people on the island he named San Salvador, he wrote, on October 14, 1492, “When your Highnesses so command, they could all be carried off to Castile or be held captive in the island itself because with 50 men they could all be subjugated and compelled to do anything one wishes.”
* On further exposure to the gentle native people, he wrote on December 16, 1492, “They have no weapons and are all naked without any skill in arms and are very cowardly so that a thousand would not challenge three.… Thus they are useful to be commanded and to be made to labor and sow and to do everything else of which there is need and build towns.…”
* On February 2, 1494, he dispatched 12 ships with a cargo of slaves—nearly half of whom died during the voyage—to be sold in the slave market at Seville.
I find no honor in such deeds or in the reign of terror Columbus unleashed on the people of the Americas. On this day (known in many places as Indigenous People’s Day) I join in honoring the native peoples who survived Columbus’s assault on their homes and families.
It is time to apologize and make amends.