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In June, a damaged Christopher
Columbus statue in Boston's North End. AP file photo/Steven
Senne
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Celebrated by Italian immigrants in the United States since 1792,
Columbus Day became a federal holiday in 1937 to commemorate the
"arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas." The
explorer's reputation has darkened in recent years as scholars
have focused more attention on the killings and other atrocities
he committed against Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean. This year,
amid a national reckoning on racial injustice, protesters have toppled
and beheaded statues of Columbus in various cities, while pressure
grows to abolish the national holiday and replace it with one that
celebrates the people who populated the Americas long before the
explorer "sailed the ocean blue."
The articles below showcase that, as communities decide the future
of Columbus Day, efforts within the Native community and beyond
are underway to highlight indigenous historical materials, hear
the unique perspective on climate change offered by indigenous leaders,
and revitalize ancestral languages and the cultural identities they
sustain.
A Day of Reckoning
Harvard
Gazette
Joseph P. Gone, Faculty Director, Harvard University Native
American Program
"To commemorate Columbus is to commemorate European colonization
of Indigenous peoples. Instead of recalling and recounting those
tawdry tales, let us instead cite and celebrate a most improbable
outcome of this history: Indigenous survivance. Stories of Indigenous
survival, resilience, and resistance remain in short supply in mainstream
America, but not because they do not exist; rather, they have been
eclipsed through a nationalist project of Indigenous erasure. We
can change this by replacing the October federal holiday with Indigenous
Peoples' Day."
Curating the Future
Harvard
Gazette
Sadada Jackson, MTS '19, a member of the Nipmuc tribe and former
graduate research assistant at Tozzer Library
"I wanted to create a space for people who are indigenous,
whether they speak or not their indigenous languages, where not
only they can be themselves, but also inquire about themselves.
It's important for all marginalized people, especially black and
native people, who often were not seen or were gazed upon, to have
a space where they can see themselves reflected."
Putting 'the Language of the Earth on the Agenda'
Harvard
Gazette
Nainoa Thompson, President of the Polynesian Voyaging Society
and a Pwo navigator, spoke at HDS about how the ecological is also
deeply personal and linked to his heritage
"Twenty-eight years after the European discovery of the island
[of Hawaii], 79 percent of native islanders had died. [It is] the
chronic story of what happens to Indigenous people around the world.
It's characterized by the loss of everything: your lands, governance.
When you get close to extinction is when they take away your dignity."
We Speak, Therefore We Are
Harvard
Gazette
Marcus Briggs-Cloud, MTS '10, an indigenous Maskoke
"Formally, our language is projected to be extinct in about
20 to 25 years. So, I'm going to speak the language everywhere I
go so it's heard by all these plants and all these animals. Especially
in our homeland from which we were displaced during Indian removal
policies, Alabama, Georgia, Northern Florida, as they're colonially
known today, is where all the elements of the natural world recognize
our language. When we speak our language there it brings to life
the spirit in all those elements of the natural world, so I'm committed
to doing that."
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