Indigenous Peoples’ Day

In the early 20th Century, Italian-Americans were discriminated against, including limits on their immigration to the United States. A new Minnesota Columbus statue was a symbol that Italians were not only true Americans but “white Americans.”

A book on public monuments touched upon how Columbus became a way for Italian-Americans, when they weren't quite "white," to show they were part of the tribe. The tribe being Americans. Pun intended. The matter is alluded to by Biden's proclamation for the Columbus Day holiday.

The appropriate thing in the minds of many -- though my Italian rich area had a Columbus Day parade over the weekend -- is to call the holiday observed today Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Biden covers that too.  Let's not forget Leif Erikson Day, officially yesterday.  The Norse knew how to do things: settle for a while, but die out, while natives continued on.  

Columbus is an understandable tool for Italians in context. "Columbia" and so on was long an American symbol.  Consider our own nation's capital, the District of Columbia.  The original symbol was a woman -- you can't have some Catholic Spaniard (or whatever) symbolize the United States.  Still, he is not exactly a great choice.  There should be better Italians though Columbus gets to be tied to an origin story.  See also, how Romans decided to find a way to adapt Homer's stories as an origin story too.

Anyway, Columbus was a problematic character, as shown by how the Spanish eventually arrested the guy and all.  Not that you can find too many great colonial Spanish characters vis-a-vis the dealings with Native Americans.  And, then, that leads people to consider how this country dealt with Native Americans.  When Mexico was deemed not worthy of governing the American Southwest, let's say they had little chance.

The bottom line for me is that this weekend allows us to consider the full complexity, warts and all, of European settlement in the "New World."  I think we can get a bit sanctimonious here as if there was something "white" about what happened.  I welcome a bit of reading about the Mongol conquests.  Or, how anti-Aztec Natives helped the Spanish in Mexico because the Aztecs weren't great, including use of human sacrifice.

This is not about hand-waving and saying all is well. It is a recognition that over the course of history waves of people migrated throughout the world and thru conquest, disease, and other things with applications to what happened in the Americans, replaced native peoples.  On some level, this goes back to the Cro Magnon replacing Neanderthals.  

We have a duty to remember and understand, especially since many of the descendants of the Native Americans of the past are still with us.  And, in the process, we can have the best up to date celebration of holidays, which can be complex things.  Thanksgiving shows this, including "days of thanksgiving," which historically were also moments of repentance.

Oh. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving.