http://lohud.com/article/20081011/OPINION/810110310/1076/OPINION01

 

Rethinking Columbus : great explorer or a greedy conqueror?

by Richard Kavesh – October 11, 2008

As a Social Studies teacher at an “A-graded” public high school in the Bronx, I’m stupefied that so many Americans still believe our most popular myth - that Christopher Columbus discovered America . The claim that Columbus discovered America is just as preposterous as the claim of the Native American who landed in Rome on Sept. 25, 1973 and declared that he discovered Italy .

” Italy , cradle of Western civilization, woke up today to the fact that it has never actually been discovered,” the New York Times reported at the time. “The situation, however, was remedied at 11:00 in the morning when the chief of the Indian Chippewa tribe, Adam Nordwall, stepped off an Alitalia jumbo jet and claimed it for the Indian people. The intrepid explorer, in full Indian dress, stood on the tarmac of Fiumicino Airport and took possession of Italy ‘by right of discovery.’”

Blithely ignoring the fact that Italy is and has been inhabited by highly cultured and accomplished people who rightly consider themselves the legitimate rulers of the glorious land they have lived in for millennia, Mr. Nordwall then asked: “What right had Columbus to ‘discover’ America when it was already inhabited for thousands of years? The same right that I have to come to Italy and claim to have discovered your country.”

Let’s get a few things straight. As bold and visionary an explorer as Columbus was, he never landed in America and he didn’t discover any new lands at all; the Caribbean island where Columbus landed had been inhabited by indigenous peoples for thousands of years before his arrival. Columbus was a brutal conquistador: he claimed the Caribbean and Central American regions for the Spanish crown and his henchmen killed, tortured, exploited, raped, and enslaved thousands of Taino Indians.

Columbus and his backers in Spain were motivated by what historians refer to as “God, gold, and glory.” The book “Rethinking Columbus,” edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson, quotes author Hans Koning’s description of how Columbus ‘ crew extracted gold from the Tainos: “Every man and woman, every boy or girl of fourteen or older had to collect gold for the Spaniards. As their measure, the Spaniards used hawks’ bells. Every three months, every Indian had to bring to one of the forts a hawk’s bell filled with gold dust. Copper tokens were manufactured, and when an Indian brought his or her tribute of gold to an armed post, he or she received such a token, stamped with the month, to be hung around the neck. With that they were safe for another three months while collecting more gold. Whoever was caught without a token was killed by having his or her hands cut off. Indians who tried to flee into the mountains were hunted down with dogs and killed, to set an example for the others.”

To make matters even worse, the Tainos that Columbus’ crew didn’t maim or murder later succumbed to diseases that Columbus and his fellow conquistadores transported from Europe . And when all this “cheap labor” died, African slaves were shipped over to replace them. Columbus was therefore directly responsible for introducing both imperialism and slavery to the Americas .

Why, then, do so many Americans still believe that Columbus discovered America ? Because most history is written from the perspective of the winners and because history books often ignore the perspectives of minorities, poor people, or otherwise exploited peoples. “The word ‘discover’ represents the point of view of the supposed discoverers,” Bigelow writes in “Rethinking Columbus.” “It’s the invaders masking their theft. And when the word gets repeated in textbooks, those textbooks become the propaganda of the winners.”

Although textbooks used in New York public schools point out both the positive and negative effects of the “Columbian exchange” (defined as “the global transfer of plants, animals, people, and diseases that occurred during the European colonization of the Americas ” ), they invariably describe the arrival of Columbus and his crew from the Spaniards’ point of view. There’s hope: recent Regents test questions have asked students to discuss varying views of the Columbus story.

As for me, I begin my first class on the Age of Encounter between the peoples of Europe, Africa, and the Americas by walking up to a (previously alerted) student, taking his or her backpack, and then announcing to the class: “I discovered this backpack. I own it, it’s mine.” When students object, I then go inside the backpack, take something out of it, claim it, and let the students yell in outrage for a while before filling them in on the prank and then asking them: “so how can people say that Columbus discovered America ?”

These days, Columbus Day doesn’t mean much to most Americans except a day off from work or school and another reason to go shopping. As we throng the Mall, yak on our cell phones, and bargain-hunt for clothes stitched perhaps by the very descendants of Columbus’ original slave laborers, let us take at least a few moments to reflect and to ask ourselves if Columbus was more of a great explorer or a greedy conqueror, more of an intrepid voyager or an exploitative imperialist, and if Columbus Day is more of an occasion for celebration or commiseration.

The writer, a Nyack village trustee, teaches social studies at the Bronx School of Law and Finance, a public high school.

Dogs being beaten to death by housing workers? Yikes! It’s a rather bizarre solution to a huge problem.

On my reservation, there has been a growing population of unwanted, uncared for pets. Again, poverty is a strong factor in our relationship with our four-legged relatives. When people don’t feel good about themselves, it’s not likely that they will extend the necessary caring. 

I’ve heard this old story about humans’ relationship with the dog. In a time of famine, the dog came forward to the starving humans and offered itself for their survival. The dog asked the humans to care for them from that time forward. So the dog is very loyal to the human, even when abused. The dogs linger in human habitats, even when it could roam free and probably survive better in the wild.

And likewise, with any other being, we have a comprehensible story about the evolution of our relationships and responsibilities.

The abandoned pet population is so huge, maybe our tribal colleges should think about partnerships with Humane Society and develop courses for animal management? Maybe the tribal administration might think about establishing shelters and spaying/neutering programs. It isn’t going to go away if you ignore it. They’ll multiply. It’ll cost money to do these things, but when you do good things, help will happen.

If I had another lifetime, I would be a vet and establish an animal shelter!

What is important to remember is that when children see this negligence and cruelty, it’ll imprint values and will certainly deteriorate the integrity of the community and the culture.

Thank you for the question, my friend.

Thank you, Merman and Nancy for your insights. This issue is particularly troublesome for me as my family has a strong military involvement and we have felt the effects, both good and not so good.

I remember my grandfather squatting on the ground without a shirt, washing potatoes from the field. He had jagged scars across his back; shrapnel wounds from World War I. I remember the photographs of my father and uncles taken during the Korean War. I remember best my brother as he was before he went to Vietnam and as he was when he came back. None have talked about what happened there. 

The warrior spirit says to protect your family and the territory you need to survive and it is that warrior spirit that nudges our young to step up when this country seems to be threatened. It is that, but it is also the deep poverty that hunkers down over inner cities, the rural areas, and reservations that compels our precious young to step into the military ranks.

Historically, our leaders were out front, but it isn’t the leaders of this country that must suffer the effects of their decisions.

The holocaust in Iraq goes on, taking along with it the bodies and minds of our young men and women. “Ha ecela glipi” I’ve heard elders say. They’ve come back hollow, just a shell and this country is not prepared for the numbers.

I’ve heard that the Dineh people (Navajo) still actively practice their cleansing and healing practices for those returning from war. Here and there in Lakota country there are ceremonies to help veterans. I’m sure the VA is doing the best that it can to bring healing, but the numbers will become even more overwhelming.

I worry for my nieces and nephews that are now on their way to war. They were just babies! They don’t want to kill, but the military is practically the only way out of the intense poverty. If there was a real threat to this country, I would be singing encouragement songs for them. We all know that is not so. If I sound unpatriotic, it’s only because someone defined patriotism in an odd way. We are still patriots to the land, to the humble and honest people, but how can we be patriots to pathology on a grand scale?

 

An Alaska Native speaks out on Palin, Oil, and Alaska

By Evon Peter

evonpeter@mac.com

9/8/2008

My name is Evon Peter; I am a former Chief of the Neetsaii Gwich’in tribe from Arctic

Village, Alaska and the current Executive Director of Native Movement. My

organization provides culturally based leadership development through offices in Alaska

and Arizona. My wife, who is Navajo, and I have been based out of Flagstaff, Arizona for

the past few years, although I travel home to Alaska in support of our initiatives there as

well. It is interesting to me that my wife and I find ourselves as Indigenous people from

the two states where McCain and Palin originate in their leadership.

I am writing this letter to raise awareness about the ongoing colonization and violation of

human rights being carried out against Alaska Native peoples in the name of

unsustainable progress, with a particular emphasis on the role of Sarah Palin and the

Republican leadership. My hope is that it helps to elevate truth about the nature of

Alaskan politics in relation to Alaska Native peoples and that it lays a framework for our

path to justice.

Ever since the Russian claim to Alaska and the subsequent sale to the United States

through the Treaty of Cession in 1867, the attitude and treatment towards Alaska Native

peoples has been fairly consistent. We were initially referred to as less than human

“uncivilized tribes”, so we were excluded from any dialogues and decisions regarding our

lands, lives, and status. The dominating attitude within the Unites States at the time was

called Manifest Destiny; that God had given Americans this great land to take from the

Indians because they were non-Christian and incapable of self-government. Over the

years since that time, this framework for relating to Alaska Native peoples has become

entrenched in the United States legislative and legal systems in an ongoing direct

violation of our human rights.

What does this mean? Allow me to share an analogy. If a group of people were to arrive

in your city and tell you their people had made laws, among which were:

1. What were once your home and land now belong to them (although you could live

in the garage or backyard)

2. Forced you to send your children to boarding schools to learn their language and

be acculturated into their ways with leaders who touted “Kill the American, save

the man” (based on the original statement made by US Captain Richard H. Pratt

in regards to Native American education “Kill the Indian, save the man.”)

3. Supported missionaries and government agents to forcefully (for example, with

poisons placed on the tongues of your children and withheld vaccines) convince

you that your Jesus, Buddha, Torah, or Mohammed was actually an agent of evil

and that salvation in the afterlife could only be found through believing otherwise

4. Made it illegal for you to continue to do your job to support your family, except

under strict oversight and through extensive regulation

5. Made it illegal for you to own any land or run a business as an individual and did

not allow you to participate in any form of their government, which controlled

your life (voting or otherwise)

How would this make you feel? What if you also knew that if you were to retaliate, that

you would be swiftly killed or incarcerated? How long do you think it would take for you

to forget or would you be sure to share this history with your children with the hope that

justice could one day prevail for your descendents? And most importantly to our

conversation, how American does this sound to you?

To put this into perspective, my grandfather who helped to raise me in Arctic Village was

born in 1904, just thirty-seven years after the United States laid claim to Alaska. If my

grandfather had unjustly stolen your grandfathers home and I was still living in the house

and watching you live outdoors, would you feel a change was in order? Congress

unilaterally passed most of the major US legislation that affect our people in my

grandfathers’ lifetime. There has never been a Treaty between Alaska Native Peoples and

the United States over these injustices. Each time that Alaska Native people stand up for

our rights, the US responds with token shifts in its laws and policies to appease the

building discontent, yet avoiding the underlying injustice that I believe can be resolved if

leadership in the United States would be willing to acknowledge the underlying injustice

of its control over Alaska Native peoples, our lands, and our ways of life.

United States legal history in relation to Alaska Natives has been based on one major

platform - minimize the potential for Alaska Native people to regain control of their lives,

lands, and resources and maximize benefit to the Unites States government and its

corporations. While the rest of the world, following World War II, was seeking to return

African and European Nations to their rightful owners, the United States pushed in the

opposite direction by pulling the then Territory of Alaska out of the United Nations

dialogues and pushing for Statehood into the Union. Why is it that Alaska Native Nations

are still perceived as being incapable of governing our own lands, lives, and resources

differently than African, Asian, and European nations?

Let me get specific about what is at stake and how this relates to Palin and the

Republican leadership in Alaska and across this country. To this day, Alaska Native

peoples are among the only Indigenous peoples in all of North America whose

Indigenous Hunting and Fishing Rights have been extinguished by federal legislation and

yet we are the most dependent people on this way of life. Most of our villages have no

roads that connect them to cities; many live with poverty level incomes, and all rely to

varying degrees on traditional hunting, fishing, and harvesting for survival. This has

become known as the debate on Alaska Native Subsistence.

As Alaska Governor, Palin has continued the path of her predecessor Frank Murkowski

in challenging attempts by Alaska Native people to regain their human right to their

traditional way of life through subsistence.

The same piece of unilateral federal legislation, known as the Alaska Native Claims

Settlement Act (ANCSA) of 1971, that extinguished our hunting and fishing rights, also

extinguished all federal Alaska Native land claims and my Tribe’s reservation status. In

the continental United States, this sort of legislation is referred to as ‘termination

legislation’ because it takes the rights of self-government away from Tribes. It is based in

the same age-old idea that we are not capable of governing our people, lands, and

resources. To justify these terminations, ANCSA also created Alaska Native led forprofit

corporations (which were provided the remaining lands not taken by the

government and a one time payment the equivalent of about 1/20th of the annual profits

made by corporations in Alaska each year) with a mission of exploiting the land in

partnership with the US government and outside corporations. It was a brilliant piece of

legislation for the legal termination and cultural assimilation of Alaska Natives under the

guise of progress.

Since the passage of ANCSA, political leaders in Alaska, with a few exceptions, have

maintained that, as stated by indicted Senator Ted Stevens, “Tribes have never existed in

Alaska.” They maintain this position out of fear that the real injustice being carried out

upon Alaska Natives may break into mainstream awareness and lead to a re-opening of

due treaty dialogues between Alaska Native leaders and the federal government. At the

same time the federal government chose to list Alaska Native tribes in the list of federally

recognized tribes in 1993. Governor Palin maintains that tribes were federally recognized

but that they do not have the same rights as the tribes in the continental United States to

sovereignty and self-governance, even to the extent of legally challenging our Tribes

rights pursuant to the Indian Child Welfare Act. What good are governments that can’t

make decisions concerning their own land and people?

The colonial mentality in and towards Alaska is to exploit the land and resources for

profits and power, at the expense of Alaska Native people. Governor Palin reflects this

attitude and perspective in her words and leadership. She comes from an area within

Alaska that was settled by relocated agricultural families from the continental United

States in the second half of the last century. It is striking that a leader from that particular

area feels she has a right, considering all of the injustices to Alaska Native people, to

offer Alaskan oil and resources in an attempt to solve the national energy crisis at the

Republican Convention. Palin also chose not to mention the connection between oil

development and global warming, which is wreaking havoc on Alaska Native villages,

forcing some to begin the process of relocation at a cost sure to reach into the hundreds of

millions.

Our tribes depend on healthy and abundant land and animals for our survival. For

example, my people depend on the Porcupine Caribou herd, which migrates into the

coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge each spring to birth their young. Any

disruption and contamination will directly impact the health and capacity for my people

to continue to live in a homeland we have been blessed to live in for over 10,000 years.

This is the sacrifice Palin offered to the nation. The worst part of it is that there are viable

alternatives to addressing the energy crisis in the United States, yet Palin chooses options

that very well may result in the extinguishment of some of the last remaining intact

ecosystems and original cultures in all of North America. Palin is also promoting off

shore oil drilling and increased mining in sensitive areas of Alaska, all of which would

have a lifespan of far fewer years than my grandfather walked on this earth and which

would not even make a smidgen of an impact on national consumption rates or longer

term sustainability. McCain was once a champion of protecting the Arctic National

Wildlife Refuge and it is sad to see, that with Palin on board, he is no longer vocal and

perhaps even giving up on what he believes in to satisfy Palin’s position.

While I have much more to say, this is my current offering to elevate the conversation

about what is at stake in Alaska and for Alaska Native peoples. Please share this offering

with others and help us to make this an election that brings out honest dialogue. We have

an opportunity to bring lasting change, but only if we can be open to hearing the truth

about our situations and facing the challenges that arise.

Many thanks to all those who are taking stands for a just and sustainable future for all of

our future generations,

*This essay is a personal reflection and should not be attributed to my tribe or organization

I do a lot of talking and then listen later. I have some thoughts on Lakota people and other people of color joining the military at disproportionate rates, but I invite you to offer your opinions and we can have a discussion. Thanks!