Every second Monday in October in America is Columbus Day. It is a day dedicated to the discovery of the New World and to all the perceived wonderful things that have come out of European intervention in the Americas. However, many people fail to notice all the tragedies and terrors that were brought about by the man known as Christopher Columbus. Before the era of Anglo settlement in America, the Native Americans lived undisturbed. They formed great civilizations and deep cultural traditions. The Native American way of life was destroyed by Columbus and explorers like him.
Columbus himself wrote, “As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.” One of the very first things Columbus did in the New World was take slaves. His sole purpose was to find rumored hordes of gold and bullion to take back to his employers in Spain. It is a shame that America celebrates a holiday named in honor of a slave trader and murderer. As they were leaving the island of Hispaniola, Columbus and his crew were trading with local Indians. Columbus wanted more than what they were willing to sell him. The Indians were killed, and Columbus headed back to Spain. Back in Spain, he told tales of the mass amounts of gold that could be used by the Spanish so that Spain would finance another voyage. Columbus had seen a little gold in rivers and on Indians but nowhere near the amount he was promising to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.
Columbus’s attitude of conquest and lack of mercy set a precedent for all future explorers in the New World. Some may even go as far to say that Columbus was the founder of slavery in America; after all, he did take the first slaves ever in the New World. America should be more culturally sensitive to those Native groups that were slaughtered by Columbus and his men by not honoring him with a federal holiday. History cannot place this false hero and other conquistadors like him on a pedestal to be honored.
American Cultural Icons 