By: Jenna Beresheim News Editor
For over 80 federally recognized years, Native Americans have watched our country celebrate a day commending Columbus, a historical figure who induced indigenous peoples’ genocide and European colonization. But it is not only the United States – other countries observe the day, such as Italy and Spain.
Now, though, there may be hope for our native peoples.
Recently, the Portland City Council officially joined the slow-moving bandwagon by declaring a shift from Columbus Day, typically recognized on the second Monday of October, to Indigenous People’s Day.
Portland joins at least seven other cities around the country that are making the change. The movement began with the International Indian Council in Berkeley, California as a protest against Columbus Day in 1992.
This shift directly ties into the fact that the Portland area reportedly has the 9th-largest indigenous population in the US.
Amongst that population are nine different federally recognized tribes, such as the Burns Paiute Tribe, Coquille Indian Tribe, and Klamath Tribes. There are at least 11 more Oregon tribes and clans that are not federally recognized.
Growing up, my elementary teachers taught our class the familiar mnemonic “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” While this was helpful to remember the date of Columbus’ so-called “discovery” of America, we were fed the sugar-coated version of what this truly meant.
We need to understand the real version, not only for our history, but for the history of those who had already inhabited the land before immigration to the area.
A key point to note is that historians are actually unclear as to who first discovered America.
History occasionally becomes blurry in the sense that there is little documentation of certain events, or those said documents come up against questions of validity.
An example would be John Smith – an English explorer who wrote of his tales in America. While some bits and pieces of his writings are fairly accurate, such as what Native Americans wore, other chapters became more about primping Smith’s ego than portraying an accurate account of his explorations.
Competing theories of who exactly discovered America are as follows: Irish Monks in the 6th Century, Vikings in the 10th Century, and The Chinese in the 15th Century. However, that last one is admittedly lacking in credible evidence.
Regardless, Columbus came, saw, and conquered.
By taking on the Western Hemisphere, good old Christopher brought the disease party train with him, complete with smallpox, measles, and influenza – effectively destroying 90 percent of the native population. The cherry on top of the smallpox sundae was that Columbus even had a hand in the transatlantic slave trade.
Maybe that is why Oregon has never officially observed the “holiday.” Hawaii, Alaska, and South Dakota must have also caught the memo of Columbus’ nefarious deeds, as they also refused to have a day off in recognition of something clearly corrupt with the celebration.
Slowly, entire states are making the change by either renaming the day to Native American Day or Indigenous People’s Day, or not even observing the day at all. For Native Americans, this proves that our country is willing to cease a celebration of mass genocide and give a tip of the hat to our predecessors on this land.
Now if only it was that easy to remove novelty Native American costumes and headdresses from Halloween or the runway.
So whether you find yourself in the Leif Erikson boat, or one of the many other possibilities for the discovery of a land already populated, remember to celebrate responsibly: sans the mass destruction of an entire race.
