Happy Columbus Day...

...From Jim Hughes.

Jim came across this sardonic commentary on Columbus Day yesterday while wandering the streets of Camden, Maine.

Posted by: Mike

©2015 by Jim Hughes, all rights reserved

Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

TOP's links!

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Phil Wilkins: "In Australia our equivalent to Columbus Day is Australia Day celebrated on January 26th. Aboriginal people, the indigenous people of this country, call it Invasion Day."

Gaspar Heurtley: "In Argentina, this has always been 'Día de la raza' (raza means race). When I was a teenager, I studied how Cristobal Colón discovered América. But a couple years ago, things changed: now it's 'Cultural diversity day'; kids learn about the civilizations that where here before Europeans, about the multiple wars, advantages and disadvantages of that coming, and so on. I wish I was at junior high now."

KeithB: "Actually, I prefer 'Explorer's Day.' Then we can honor the brave Asian who said 'Do you think it is safe to cross?' as well as astronauts and other folks who dared the unknown."

Derek: "There are many reasons we should not be celebrating Christopher Columbus (and sad it has taken this long to start acknowledging the fact). That graphic text [the sheet in the middle of the picture —Ed.] was penned not by Columbus but Michele de Cuneo. Columbus is the 'Lord Admiral' referenced."

Comments

[Dogman]

Odd concept. Were there indigenous people to the Americas? I haven't kept up with archeological discoveries so maybe things have changed and I missed it. Do scientists still believe the Americas were settled by humans from Asia crossing into what is now Alaska and spreading throughout the continent? If so, doesn't that mean no one really was indigenous to the American continents? We all just got here at different times.

[Fred Mueller]

I read the quoted Christopher Columbus... I felt the need to verify this passage, not because am doubtful of the savagery perpetrated by Columbus, but of how sometimes the truth can get a little twisted. The passage quoted are not the words of Christopher Columbus but of Michele de Cuneo, an aristocrat that accompanied him on the second voyage. No consolation and assuredly not a vindication of Columbus and his methods.

http://tinyurl.com/o2kdod9

There is no excuse for such behavior and no excuse to celebrate a man that permitted and condoned such treatment as normal.

[Scott L.]

That is the official name of the day in many places in the country, although some call it Native American Day:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigenous_Peoples%27_Day

[Bill Poole]

I probably won't be the first to point put that the quote attributed to Columbus is more often attributed to one of his party, Michele de Cuneo.

Columbus role--"giving" the woman to Cuneo--is no less ignoble, but he was apparently not the rapist in this instance.

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2013/10/14/8-myths-and-atrocities-about-christopher-columbus-and-columbus-day-151653

[Roger Bradbury]

Too damn right we should have an indigenous peoples day. This country hasn't been the same since the Normans came here, building their stupid pointed arches everywhere. Not to mention adding foreign words to our language. We, the Saxons, got here first.

Roger Bradbury
England

(Yep, satire alert...)

[Stan B.]

The guy was hopelessly lost, "discovered" nothing, and responsible for the deaths of thousands.

Happy Holiday!

[Fazal Majid]

See also The Oatmeals' magistral take-down of Columbus:
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/columbus_day

[Jack]

It is very likely that the only true indigenous people live in Africa. The rest of us (or our ancestors) are/were from somewhere's else at some point in history.

(Yes this overlooks parallel-evolution theories.)

Having said that, I understand the real message. It could well have been called "The Beginning of the End Day" or "Yes, We were using this Hemisphere Day"

Cheers

[Gene Forsythe]

So, how was the Cristopher Colon action different from what each and every "indigenous" tribe in the Americas was already practicing (slavery, that is).

Oh, yes, he documented his actions in writing, in a manner that allowed for replication and distribution........something no western hemisphere culture could do at the time.

[MikeR]

Is that account, allegedly by Columbus, authentic?

Choose your heroes carefully.

[scott kirkpatrick]

My son has a great T-shirt showing four Native Americans armed with rifles of various vintage, with the caption "defending the homeland from terrorists since 1492."

scott

[Stephen Gilbert]

The Columbus quote is more than sardonic, describing his rape of a Carib woman.

[John Willard]

The Carib woman story was....um...interesting.

[John Willard]

oops, a second look and I realize it was written by C. Columbus. That wasn't clear in the enlargement, it gets cutoff just at the last line, I noticed the byline on the small picture.

[emptyspaces]

I guess Columbus had a good run from 1492 until the internet happened.

[Phil Wilkins]

In Australia our equivalent to Columbus Day is Australia Day celebrated on January 26th. Aboriginal people, the indigenous people of this country, call it Invasion Day.

[AHC McDonald]

I was thinking that such boards are the same all over the world, each with their own humorous percentage of crackpots and anti staplers. But you not mentioning the Columbus quote pinned in the centre? Chilling and disturbing (if true).

[ctein]

Dear AHC McDonald,

The text passage is misattributed, as it comes from the diaries of Miguel de Cuneo. The "Lord Admiral" is Columbus. de Cuneo's letters do not seem to be in question, although various English translations report the text somewhat differently (although not in any important particulars).

So, no, Columbus did not commit this particular rape, he "merely" provided the victim to his friend to rape.

Some have tried to imagine this was an isolated incident or that Columbus was somehow unaware of how his crew treated the women and girls he provided them, but given the commonness of such practices at the time, this seems way beyond unlikely. He was brought up on charges for his mistreatment of the "Americans."

pax / Ctein

[Moose]

I don't know how many people were able to read the page of text ...

So depressing.

[David Bennett]

I travelled from Mexico to Brazil and up to Venezuela over a year in 1990-91 and there were pins and little badges everywhere that people wore that read '500 years of resistance '