Every year, at least for the last decade, the diversity industrial complex troopers continue their assault on the memory of the legendary Italian explorer Christopher Columbus. a counter-holiday, Indigenous Peoples Day, was introduced on the Left Coast on the fifth century celebration of Columbus' first voyage to the Western Hemisphere; the politically correct celebration of Rousseau's notion of the "noble savage", unpolluted with the European notions of slavery and colonization, with assault of Old World diseases in the Columbian exchange, which all but wiped out native populations with no acquired immunity. (Catholic League traces the Columbus bashing to 2 principal Marxist sources: Howard Zinn's 1980 book, A People’s History of the United States and Brazilian educator Paulo Freire's 1970 bestselling book, Pedagogy of the Oppressed.)
I wrote the rough draft of an unpublished short story years back which is a twist on the health exchange of swine flu, smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague, typhus, and malaria, versus perhaps syphilis. The captain on the way back is dying of some unknown disease; they had contact with natives in a coastal village; it turned out to be a quarantined population without obvious, recognizable symptoms.
The fact that natives lost lives due to no acquired immunity is tragic, of course, but I would caution against presentist judgments over the modern day knowledge of disease control over 5 centuries ago. I don't think the early explorers had genocidal intentions; I think they wanted to trade and work with the native people they met; the natives had more knowledge of the local ares and resources.
Other aspects of the Columbian exchange included crops from the New World (maize, potatoes, tomatoes, tobacco, cassava, sweet potatoes, and chili peppers) and the Old (rice, wheat, and sugar cane), and domesticated animals, primarily Old (horses, donkeys, mules, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, chickens, large dogs, cats, and bees). The New World also became a key global supplier of silver.
I don't have an issue with honoring indigenous people, although given our unique foundation as a melting pot of immigrants, I sometimes wonder if it's not intrinsically divisive to single out particular groups or group composites. I know some will argue that's what's what Columbus represents to Italian-Americans. Others may point to St. Patrick's Day or Cinco de Mayo, bu these aren't holidays.
I am not indifferent to Native Americans, although I don't claim it like Cherokee Lizzie (I consider myself Franco-American, i.e., French Canadian descent.) My Mom once claimed that I had inherited my high cheekbones from my paternal (Cherokee) great-grandmother (grandmother's side). My middle brother says it could be from our paternal great grandfather (surname side), who was half Algonquin/Iroquois.
Let's point out this Rousseau-like idyllic fantasy of the Native American "noble savage" is not based on fact. All of us humans have faults which may differ by context. Slavery did not originate with Western Civilization. Catholic League provides a number of observations in the studies of Native American history here.
Why then celebrate by the defining voyages of Columbus? Not because he was a saint, without fault. Not because he found the success he initially imagined. Not because he was the first to reach the Americas: we know about the Vikings et al. So why celebrate Columbus? Because his voyages were consequential. The ensuing migration from all continents to the US continues to this day where we still remain a top destination, attracting about a fifth of global migrants, and immigrants are about 1/7th of our population. (My own great-grandparents were part of the Quebec diaspora to the US seeking better lives.) Despite less than 5% of the global population, we have had the largest economy in the world for over a century, significantly due to immigrant entrepreneurs and others with a hard work ethic, We have a diverse, religiously and ethnically tolerant society. Do we have challenges? Of course, But I will continue to honor the man who showed us the way.
