October 10th was Columbus Day (cue the eye rolls?). Many of you might be aware of the different parts of the United States (including Portland) that are pushing to replace this national holiday with a different one: Indigenous People’s Day. This began back in Berkeley, California in 1992 and since then, many other cities have “canceled” Columbus Day in favor of a holiday that gives recognition to the resistence of indigenous people.
As someone who is half-Mexican/Latina, Columbus Day was always a little weird for me. Growing up, I really didn’t understand why it made my dad so angry. Why would I? In school, we sang about the incredible discovery of the Americas — we talked about Christopher Columbus like he was some sort of hero! We weren’t told about how the Europeans wiped out indigenous populations everywhere they conquered. I didn’t realize Columbus had essentially laid out the blueprints for colonization when he began his conquest. Of course, as I continue to learn more, I became angry. It was hard not to be when the details of what happened to my ancestors really came to light. Especially when I saw how the oppression still played out even today. Yes, it’s “ancient” history but it’s effects are so prevalent today we must acknowledge it, and do so in its entirity.
But, I realize the lack of understanding and conversation comes from a lack of education on the matter. I can thank Twitter, Tumblr, and my own research for what I’ve learned (and maybe one college history course), but elementary through high school, very little was taught to me about this. So this is for all of you who are in my same boat.
Who are these indigenous people? Are people being excluded even on Indigenous People’s Day?
While I’m fully aware that the push for Indigenous People’s Day is taking place in the United States, it’s painfully disrespectful to only focus on North American indigenous peoples (namely U.S. and Canadian natives as indigenous people in Mexico also get ignored). If we’re going to talk about Columbus and the European conquests, we must discuss Latin America, the Caribbean especially, and Africa as well. Indigenous People’s Day doesn’t say North American Indigenous People’s Day, therefore, we should be recognizing them worldwide. But, for the purpose of this article, I’m going do an overview on what happened in the Americas, which does include African indigenous people and the slave trade.
Why is it disrespectful to center this new holiday around North American native people? Because, to replace Columbus Day and truly understand these past events, you cannot ignore the people Columbus started with. It would be wrong to not focus on their plights. The Europeans did not begin their conquests in North America — Columbus started in the Caribbean.
Let’s talk about timelines and the intersectionality of issues in colonization!
The conquests took place from about 1492-1800.
1492: Columbus arrived on the island of Hispanola, modern day Haiti and the Dominican Republic. His voyages were centered around the Bahamas, the Caribbean, northern South America, and Central America. He and those who followed him enslaved the people there: the Taino — ever heard of them? Within only twenty years, the Taino population dropped from about 600,000…to 60,000. So painful to learn that. This is where it began and these were the first to suffer. Wouldn’t it make sense to at least talk about them more?
1494: Treaty of Tordesillas gave permission to the Spanish and Portuguese to conquer and colonize the Americas. It was ratified by the Pope at the time.
Almost anywhere the Europeans went, indigenous populations were cut down 50-90%. If you don’t find that baffling, sad, gut wrenching, etc., I don’t know what to tell you. The Europeans came in, took their gold, silver, food, animals, etc. and in return gave them with disease, slavery, and war…decimating the indigenous populations. And as I said before, the effects of these actions still resonate in modern day society.
Jumping back to 1441: While the Spaniards were focusing on Mexico, Central America, and Peru, the Portuguese did the same in Brazil. Now, this is where African indigenous people come in. See, Brazil and the Bahamas were perfect for growing sugar cane (see where I’m going with this?). What it lacked in gold and silver, it made up for in this. The Portuguese brought over sugarcane grass from Asia, and began importing enslaved people from Africa to be their workforce (starting with western Africa in 1441). 80% of the eleven million enslaved Africans were sent to these areas when they were forcibly brought to the Americas.
So basically…Europeans came to the Americas, wiped out the indigenous populations/enslaved them, took their land, brought over African indigenous peoples, and forced them to be slaves on another group of slaves’ land. In case you didn’t realize, the slave trade and colonization of the Americas was happening at roughly the same time. See how this is all coming together?
If this wasn’t long enough already and turning into massive history lesson, I would go further into discussing the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and what was going on in Africa at the time. For this, what you need to know is that indigenous peoples in the Americas were not the only ones terribly abused and oppressed by the Europeans as they conquered the “New World.” African indigenous people suffered here too. My point again: we can’t only be focusing on U.S./Canadian natives.
So hopefully, now you can see how North American indigenous people are not the only ones who we should be recognizing. This isn’t to take away from the focus on the tribes who have been horrifically oppressed in North America, but rather ensure the suffering of people like the Taino or the indigenous Africans is not overlooked or erased. This isn’t a contest of who had/has it worse, we simply cannot understand what happened without recognizing all the indigenous peoples involved. I think soldiarity can be developed between the various indigenous people if we can find this common ground. And, hopefully you can realize how the conquering of the Americas and oppression had a world-wide effect.
Why does this matter?
You might be wondering why any of this matters at all — it’s just history, right? Only…it isn’t. The atrocious acts committed against indigenous people still resonates today. While this is a world issue, of course, I’ll stick to what we see happening in the Americas. In the United States, an obvious example are reservations AKA the small areas of land granted to Native American tribes. While the rest of the land once belonging to an abundance of tribes, those still around were moved onto these designated reservations. These groups were forcibly relocated (ever heard of the Trail of Tears?), made to assimilate to the “white man’s way of life,” and even sterilized as a form of “ethnic cleansing.” It wasn’t even until 2000 that the U.S. government (the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be specific) apologized for their involvement in this.
The Rio Olympics caused some issues among indigenous groups recently. In Brazil, there are seven different ethnicities — lots of diversity! However, there is also a great deal of discrimination. Many indigenous people were forcibly removed from their homes as Rio began to spruce up the city for the Games. On the news you might have seen a beautiful city perfectly fit for the Summer Olympics — but what you weren’t seeing was what was happening to the residents of Rio. Even today indigenous people are having their land taken.
In the United States, sacred Native American land is being disrespected and demolished in favor of the Dakota Access Pipeline. There have been reports that at least one burial site has been destroyed already, and more of the Standing Rock tribe’s land in North Dakota is scheduled to be destroyed. There is also the legitimate concern that a spill or leak in the pipeline could be disastrous. The DAPL has the potential to poison the tribe’s water supply, making it a humanitarian and environmental threat. Despite what is still happening in Flint, Michigan, the tribe was ultimately turned down by the courts in their request to stall construction. Even in the 21st century Native American tribes and many other minority communities are put in harm’s way in favor of large corporations. This could even lead into a discussion of environmental racism.
The oppression of indigenous people is still a prevalent issue today. Replacing Columbus Day, a holiday celebrating a conquistador who slaughtered, enslaved, and robbed people, with one that celebrates cultures that were once taken away and people who were marginalized is not silly or pointless. It’s a chance for many of us to reclaim our culture, honor our people’s resistence, push back against Eurocentric history, and recognize what Columbus really stands for — not discovery, but the beginning of a genocide and generations of oppression.