On Indigenous Peoples Day by Granny Anarchy Halloween is not the only holiday in October. This year, on Monday, October 12, many banks, federal, and state offices will close due to the federally recognized holiday of Columbus Day, which is observed on the second Monday of October each year. According to federalpay.org, it “commemorates the arrival of ... Christopher Columbus in the Americas.” In recent years, this day has been acknowledged at local levels as Indigenous Peoples Day. Why the rewording - or at least the addition? Many of us were taught that “Columbus discovered America.” Many people in the United States assume this to mean that Columbus discovered the United States. I posit that there is a twofold reason why he didn't. Christopher Columbus was a Genoese Italian who - after almost a decade of lobbying - was sponsored by Spain to find an alternate course to Africa in hopes of avoiding expensive existing trade routes (and proselytizing their Christian faith along the way.) King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella eventually agreed to his plans and demands, including a cut of the wealth plus the title Admiral of the Ocean Sea as well as governorship of all the territory discovered, with all titles inherited by his heirs. He first landed in the Caribbean (which he mistook for part of Asia), visiting islands we now know as the Bahamas, Cuba, and Haiti and the Dominican Republic. He ultimately completed four voyages, but never set foot on mainland North America. He may have visited what came to be Puerto Rico (which is a US Territory) as well as Central America and parts of the South American coast, but Columbus never saw the continent nor country many people assume he has been celebrated as discovering. In addition, there
were already people living in all these areas. In essence, they were already “discovered.”
Map of the Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus, 1492–1504 World History Encyclopedia What Columbus did do was continue European expansion/colonization. He began contact between Europe and the Americas via exploitation of natural resources and human trafficking, leading to the genocide of the indigenous population. Translations differ and there are those who will argue that he had no ill intent, but current belief is that Columbus, on behalf of Spain, acted with entitlement, greed, and extreme cruelty from 1492-1500. An abbreviated timeline: Oct 1492: Upon first encountering the Taíno (also known as Lucayo, cibonéyes, and Arawak) people native to the Caribbean islands, Columbus wrote “with 50 men they would be all kept in subjection and forced to do whatever may be wished.” The Taíno were an elaborate society made up of small settlements whose members farmed maize, peppers, and sweet potatoes.
They played ball on special courts, were excellent navigators, wove cotton and slept in hammocks. Taínos had no metal weapons and cut themselves on the Europeans' metal swords. Columbus initially traded small gifts with them.
Reconstruction of a Taíno village in El Chorro de Maíta, Cuba Nov 1492: Columbus kidnaps 10 Taíno: “My men ‘brought seven head of women, small and large, and three children.’” Two escape five days later. Dec 1492: Columbus has sailed from the native-named Guanahani, which he called San Salvador, to Cuba, to the nativenamed Hayti. He's written that Taíno homes were well-kept and their canoes were “very beautiful and carved ... it was a pleasure
to see [the] workmanship and beauty”. He eventually says that the Taíno were “the best people in the world ... a people so full of love and without greed.” Columbus also writes that “Gold is a wonderful thing! Whoever owns it is lord of all he wants.” Jan 1493: Columbus leaves 39 Spaniards on Hayti and returns to Spain with six Taíno. (One will stay in Spain and die within two years. The rest attempt the return voyage and three die en route.) The Taíno, upset with the conduct of the Europeans - who raped women and took slaves and property - killed all the men Columbus left behind. When Columbus returned and discovered this, a new European settlement was erected and the area caciquat (chief) Caonabo was tricked into imprisonment. Sep 1493: 2nd voyage begins. Columbus lands on Dominica Nov 3, 1943. Columbus’s son, Fernando described them as “looting and destroying all they found.” They capture 12 “very beautiful and plump” adolescent Taíno girls. Feb 1494: Columbus sends 12 of his 17 ships back to Spain for supplies laden with several dozen indigenous “men and women and boys and girls” as slaves. He writes that they are cannibals and slavery will “secure the welfare of their souls,” recommending that supplies could be paid for in slaves, and slave shipments could be taxed to raise money for Spain. Feb 1495: Unable to find enough gold to make his venture profitable, Columbus manages to capture 1600 Taíno. 550 of “the best males and females” are put in chains and sent to Spain as slaves. Colonist Michele de Cuneo writes that “Of the rest...the announcement went around that whoever wanted them could take as many as he pleased.”
1495: Columbus establishes the tribute system. Every Taíno 14 and up is required to fill a “hawk's bell” of gold every 3 months. Those who comply wear copper tokens around their necks. Those who do not have a hand cut off. The tribute system will later be replaced by slavery and the “encomienda” system in which colonists are given land and an amount of Taíno. Later in 1495 there is Taíno resistance, a bloody Spanish victory, and an investigation by the Spanish crown about Columbus' brutality. March 1496: Columbus leaves for Spain with 30 Taíno, including caciquat Caonabo, who dies during the voyage. May 1498: 3rd voyage begins. Aug 1500: The Spanish Crown, upset over reports of bad government - although not mistreatment of Taíno - send a commissioner to Espanola (Hayti.) Columbus is arrested and sent back to Spain for trial. He will eventually make a 4th voyage. 1592: Bartolomé de las Casas writes that 200 Taíno still live in Espanola (Hayti.) It is estimated that at least 10,000 or more may have lived there before Columbus arrived. De las Casas himself says in his 1561 “History of the Indies” “There were 60,000
people living on this island [when I arrived in 1508], including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this?” This timeline does not include other indigenous people of the region, such as the Carib, whom Columbus also encountered, nor can it encompass the breadth of kidnapping, rape, slavery, and other mistreatment suffered by the Taíno and others in the region by Columbus and his colonists. It doesn’t describe any of the diseases they suffered because they lacked immunity, and it barely hints at any damage their lands suffered. Nor does it look
past Columbus into mainland South, Central, and North America and the indigenous populations there. However, history shows cultures from Diné to Inca to Inuit to Sioux to Wampanoag all diminished -and in some cases died out completely – post “Columbian Exchange.”
Statueless plinth in Caracas in 2006. A statue of Christopher Columbus, which formerly occupied the plinth, was knocked down by activists in 2004. So what message does it really send when institutions take a holiday in Columbus’ name? Is it – or Indigenous Peoples Day – a day you recognize?