christopher columbus

Kaitlin Curtice 10-09-2017

Image via United Nations Photo/Flickr.

So we need to at least have the conversation, and for children who are home from school for the “holiday,” we should encourage families to talk honestly about what the history of Native peoples has looked like in the United States. We should be talking about what our history books are missing.

Allen Johnson 9-07-2010

"Yes, Muslims have the constitutional right to build a mosque near Ground Zero.

Alfonso Wieland 1-19-2010
[En español] Haiti is an example of how both flesh and bones politicians as well as countries can look convincingly l
Alfonso Wieland 1-19-2010
[English version] Haití es ejemplo de cómo los políticos de carne y hueso pero también las nacio
Ed Spivey Jr. 10-12-2009
Every year on Columbus Day, the Sojourners team gathers around bagels, juice, and coffee to listen to our resident humorist and art director, Ed Spivey Jr., read an essay about Christopher Colu
Randy Woodley 10-12-2009
Gurgen Bakhshetsyan / Shutterstock.com

Photo via Gurgen Bakhshetsyan / Shutterstock.com

As an explorer, Columbus was not the first to reach the Western Hemisphere. Native Americans had been here for 10,000-20,000 years, and Vikings and Chinese are among those others who hold prior claims. Even after four attempts, Columbus never realized his goal of finding a western ocean route to Asia. As a “founding father type figure” he never set foot in what is now considered America but landed in the present day Bahamas, Cuba, and Haiti. 

As a Christian example he enacted terrible cruelties to friendly natives: assuming unlawful rights of authority; robbing and subjugating whole nations of their freedom and entire capital; allowing his men to rape, murder and pillage at will; and deliberately leading the way for the genocide of millions, considered by many to be the worst demographic catastrophe in recorded history.

So why do Americans celebrate Columbus Day?