Columbus: A Legend with a Terrifying Legacy

The Americas existed for centuries before what is commonly referred to as their discovery in 1492; the region was home to millions of indigenous people who lived there for centuries before European colonizers arrived on ships. This month, the United States will celebrate one such colonizer, who murdered, enslaved and wrought violence upon indigenous populations in areas including the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico.

However, this story is not the one that ensured Christopher Columbus’ narrative in American history books, nor the one that landed him on the calendar with an October holiday celebrating him. The narrative of Columbus Day is a congratulatory one, established as a national holiday in 1937, to honor Columbus for discovering the Americas.

There is a growing movement to put an end to this holiday, given the violent, genocidal history that is typically ignored when Columbus is raised up as an American hero. In its place, activists have called for a holiday to recognize the contributions, sacrifices and history of the indigenous population that lived in the Americas long before European countries claimed it as discovered: Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

“I just don’t understand why people celebrate Columbus,” said Raymond Two Hawks Watson, the founder and chief executive officer of the Providence Cultural Equity Initiative (PCEI) and the Pomham Sachem of the Mashapaug Nahaganset Tribe.

“What are you embracing? What are you celebrating?” Watson said. “…Why would you want to celebrate that legacy?”

PCEI is an organization that works to promote cultural equity, organizing and offering conferences and other programming, workshops, trainings and other events. Watson explained that part of the organization’s goal is encouraging Rhode Island to view “Rhode Island’s diversity as a natural resource” and pushing for the embrace of the various cultural communities that exist within the state and promote them.

Watson pointed to a long history of murderous relations with Native Americans, which saw indigenous populations enslaved and killed on a massive scale.

According to The Huffington Post, Columbus’ brutality with the indigenous people he encountered upon his first arrival left dead nearly half of the population of the island in the Bahamas upon which he landed. After his enslavement of the population there, 125,000 died within two years.

His second arrival was similarly violent. Columbus brought attack dogs and employed horrific attacks against the native peoples he encountered, including disfigurement, dismemberment, burning people alive and murder. The indigenous people were forced into slavery. Young girls, as young as 9, were often forced into sex slavery.

“Columbus’ acts of cruelty were so unspeakable and so legendary — even in his own day — that Governor Francisco De Bobadilla arrested Columbus and his two brothers, slapped them into chains, and shipped them off to Spain to answer for their crimes against the Arawaks,” Eric Kasum wrote in The Post. “But the King and Queen of Spain, their treasury filling up with gold, pardoned Columbus and let him go free.”

Columbus’ brutality and violence all but wiped out the native population of Hispaniola, the death toll of his actions numbering in the millions.

Dr. Tony Affigne, a professor of Political Science and Black Studies at Providence College, explained that in Rhode Island, embracing Indigenous Peoples’ Day fully faces significant hurdles, both socially and legislatively. “[Columbus] has taken on a symbolic political role,” Affigne said.

Although Columbus sailed under the Spanish flag, Columbus’ Genoese heritage has transformed Columbus’ true history into something of a “secular patron saint,” in the Italian-American community in the United States. His status as an “archetype of the American spirit,” has led to celebration of his legacy.

The understanding of that legacy, however, is flawed, Affigne explained. Because the true story of Columbus’ violent conquest of the Americas has been sanitized and presented as “a very incomplete story,” many Americans do not fully understand who Columbus was. As a result, the cultural understanding of his significance has taken on a “mythic” nature, he said. “It’s very difficult for people who know Columbus’ true violent history to argue against that,” he said.

“Columbus had a horrible track record,” Green Party organizer and longtime activist Greg Gerritt stated. “…Columbus was an invader.” That “homicidal approach” is one that has been prevalent in American history, he said, and emphasized that honoring Columbus is to honor that genocidal history.

For many years, activists across the country have pushed for a renaming and re-focusing of the October holiday, instead celebrating those who were the victims of this genocidal period of conquest. Indigenous Peoples’ Day aims to serve as a flashpoint for discussing issues facing indigenous communities today, Affigne said. It also recognizes the sacrifices of indigenous peoples and the contributions that historically have been ignored.

Watson explained that Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a way of “being who we are and being celebrated,” as well as recognizing that efforts to push Native Americans out of their homes did not succeed.

In some areas of the country, local legislatures have changed Columbus Day officially to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Cities like Seattle, Minneapolis and Los Angeles are among some of the largest cities to officially embrace and legislate the holiday in place of Columbus Day, according to a piece published in Time. Watson said he would like to see Rhode Island do the same. “[There is] a lot of opportunity and a lot of support for something like that here in the state,” Watson said.

Affigne said Rhode Island is still far from such a move, and noted that because of the misunderstanding around Columbus, as well as the strong cultural embrace of the false narrative of his legacy, such a move could face pushback. “I’d like to see us get past a colonial mindset,” Watson said, noting that he’d like to see Rhode Island let go of colonialism and, instead, embrace the cultural diversity that exists in the state.

Affigne said that although a statewide legislative move may not be imminent, there are local moves being made that indicate a move toward the embrace of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Private institutions have begun to list the day as Indigenous Peoples’ Day within their own calendars and he said it was important for allies to make changes within their own lives and institutions.

In many parts of the United States, he said, Indigenous Peoples’ Day is also a rallying point, with activists organizing protests that call attention to the historic roots of Columbus Day, as well as focus on Native Americans and the issues that directly affect them and indigenous communities.

He also noted that many schools have begun to include educational curricula  that offer a more balanced historical outline of Columbus’ true actions in and impact on the Americas. Encouraging that type of learning is important and has led to progress, he said, but still more could be done to increase understanding. “There could still be a more honest depiction of the conquest of the Americas,” Affigne said.