Why I can't celebrate Columbus Day

By Richard B. Williams
>From the Denver Post, Oct. 4, 00.

Oct. 4, 2000 - My name is Rick Williams and I am an enrolled member of the
Oglala Sioux Tribe. I am also part Northern Cheyenne and I proudly call
myself an American Indian. I was raised by my grandmother in a little rural
community in the panhandle of Nebraska. When I started kindergarten, I was
one of only 10 American Indian students. By the time I reached eighth grade,
I was the only Native American student left in my class.

My grades were always good, but I got marks in deportment such as "talks too
much" and "disturbs others." I still talk too much and sometimes what I say
annoys others. But annoyance can be an effective tool for change.

For example, my earliest protests in elementary school concerned Columbus
Day because I said he had not "discovered" America. Of course, my protests
"annoyed" the teacher and caused a stir with my non-Indian classmates. Since
that time, I have remained consistent in my position concerning Christopher
Columbus. In 1992, Gov. Roy Romer appointed me to the Quincentennial
Commission. I took the responsibility seriously and read all I could find
concerning Columbus. As I researched the subject, a grave and disturbing
portrait emerged of a man who was personally responsible for the slaughter,
dismemberment, torture and enslavement of many thousands of native people.

It was nothing for him and his soldiers to play perverse games with severed
limbs and heads, a fact well-documented in his diaries and by historians of
that time. When I brought these matters to the attention of the
Quincentennial Commission, members were, needless to say, annoyed. I just
returned from the Olympics in Australia. While there, I visited the Ab
original Art and Cultural Exhibit, which portrayed a brutally honest history
of the aboriginal people in that country. It was a virtual mirror of the
same broken treaties, forced removal to reservations and
government-sanctioned removal of children, as well as the pillaging of
natural resources and the deliberate spread of known deadly infections like
small pox. What I came to realize is that conquest and cruelty had no
boundaries.

The aftermath of Columbus' arrival is well-documented as the most tragic
holocaust in world history. It was so brutal and long-lasting that in 1999
Pope John Paul II apologized to native people of the Americas and asked
forgiveness. I pray that others follow the pope's lead and seek
reconciliation.

As an educator, I've spent my entire adult life in the world of higher
learning. I deeply believe in what education can accomplish in propelling a
society past ig norance and injustice. By shining a light on the mistakes of
the past, no matter how unsettling they may seem to the status quo, our
children must overcome the false legacy that has been handed down through
generations. We need to continue to be annoying, and ask the question: Was
Columbus a worthy hero?

To that end, I was very saddened to hear that the compromise between the
Italian-American and the American-Indian communities here in Denver
regarding Columbus Day activities had broken down. For the Indian community,
it's not a surprising development, given our history of broken treaties.
Though I have no personal bias toward the Italian-American community, my
strong objection is toward Columbus himself.

For hundreds of years, the genocide and oppression initiated by Columbus and
his arrival on this continent has been celebrated as the glorious past of
this country. From the Northwest Territories to the Strait of Magellan,
however, the native people of this continent have suffered. For the
descendants of the tribes that once flourished here, the inhumane treatment
and extermination of ancient Americans is no matter for celebration in any
society, at any time.

Richard B. Williams is the executive director of the American Indian College
Fund, a historian, educator and the founder of the Upward Bound Program at
the University of Colorado at Boulder. Members of the Compass panel are
selected each spring.