Sunday, October 09, 2005

Columbus Day

I never saw the point of celebrating this day. I hated studying it in school. Columbus' "discovery" of America was the beginning of the end for so many natives of this land.

1504-1540: Mass slaughter recorded by Bartolme de Las Casas.
1512: Indian organizer Cacique Hatuey burned at the stake, refusing baptism.
1519: Cortez coordinates mass extermination of Indians.
1598: Invaders terrorize the Inca people and begin their total destruction.
1637: King Phillip declares war on American Indians.
1680: The people of Pueblo launch an insurrection and revolt against the slave masters and occupying forces.
1823: A rash of legal decisions are passed down, some of the worst for Indian people came in this time period, beginning with Johnson vs. McIntosh, then the Indian Removal Act of 1830, which lead to the Trail of Tears and the removal of Indians from their homes.
1831 and 1832: The Cherokee Cases turned Indian nations into “domestic and dependent nations.”
1864-1865: Sand Creek Massacre and the Powder River Invasion.
1875-1876: The War for the Black Hills.
1876: The Battle of the Little Big Horn.
1878: Exodus of the Cheyennes.
1890: Massacre at Wounded Knee. 153 Indians murdered at Pine Ridge by the Calvary.

None of that would have happened if Christopher Columbus hadn't "discovered" an already inhabited land. I don't know about you, but being a full-blooded Indian, I don't feel like celebrating.

8 comments:

Kate said...

Yay for working as a government volunteer. This is the first time I've ever had Columbus Day off. Weird.
I agree that the day is pretty over-rated though.

Btw, you are such a tease with your last blog entry. ;-)

Sandy said...

Kerri, I didn't even know all those things.
Humans are a miserable race.
Don't you find it amazing that no matter how much "reparations" are made, there is no full recovery.
That goes for what happened with Hawaiians too.
(I'm a tiny little ounce of Indian, did ya know that? Probably in my pinky toe.)

Tee/Tracy said...

Yeah, I used to spout off in history class about this stuff. I was always defending Indians even before a great grandmother revealed the identity of her mother (100% native American)... I had always felt a connection but didn't know why... I even had a bumper sticker on my car that said, "Indians discovered Columbus"... LOL.

Fizzy said...

ooooo I feel very shakey commenting here today. I just wanted to say hi and how are you doing? It is ages since I have been able to blog around.

Jenny said...

A new book out called 1491 is about just those things. And that the number of Natives living at that time in these lands were greater than the Mayan culture and some other big, advanced cultures at the time.

How very sad. I so want to read that book!

Kerri said...

Kate, that was so not my intention...to tease.

Sandy, no, I don't think I knew you had "a tiny little ounce of Indian". And in your pinky toe, no less! :o)

Tee, I love that bumper sticker! I didn't spout off in history class even though I wanted to. I did my spouting off in science. My science teacher and I argued about creation and evolution All. The. Time.

Fizzy, why do you feel shakey? There's no need. I'm doing well, thank you. I've missed you around here. :o)

Jayleigh, I'll have to look for that book. I knew nothing about it. Thanks for the heads up!

Connie Marie said...

So!

Does this mean that you don't wanna play "cowboys and indians"?

I'll let you be the cowboy..... !

(Can you hear me hehehe'ing?)

Kerri said...

Hahaha! Connie, thanks for making me laugh! I've never heard you laugh, but I've heard your sister...so I'm imagining you sound similar to her. hehe