The confused holiday
15/10/24 01:02
Yesterday was the day of the confused holiday in the United States. It was a federal holiday still called Columbus Day even though the holiday and the role of Christopher Columbus in American history is controversial. Many Native American groups and other critics have advocated for changing the holiday to something else, citing Columbus’ mistreatment of natives and his legacy of European settlement. It is one of 11 federal holidays observed by the government and those who work for the federal government. Since 1990 South Dakota has observed Native Americans Day instead of Columbus Day and since we lived in South Dakota for 25 years we became used to recognizing that day as a time to rededicate ourselves to the hard work of reconciliation. Although the official federal holiday is still known as Columbus Day, President Biden issued a proclamation in 2021 and each subsequent year recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Washington, where we now live, is one of 13 states that do not celebrate Columbus Day. Yesterday was pretty much business as usual, with state offices, schools, and most city and county offices open. Of course there was no mail service because the Post Office is a federal function. Along with other federal services most major banks observed the day as a holiday as well.
It isn’t just the United States. Columbus Day is observed in Italy and Spain as well as some other countries in the Americas.
We do have an official state holiday in Washington to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The Friday after Thanksgiving is a state holiday officially known as Native American Heritage Day. Like other states, it is mostly observed with Black Friday sales and a lot of shopping. Since we aren’t into shopping all that much we try to observe the holiday by not going shopping, but that is a personal decision.
Across the border, the second Monday of October is Canadian Thanksgiving. The holiday weekend in Canada is celebrated much as Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US with large family meals, religious services, and the like. I often listen to CBC radio when I am driving and yesterday as I ran a few errands, I noticed that there was special holiday programming on CBC. Otherwise, it was pretty much a normal day for us. Our grandchildren were in school. The school bus ran on schedule. Our son went to work as usual at the library. Being retired we took the day off as we do all of the other days.
I’m not sure how to go about educating ourselves about the misinformation that we received in our educations about history. Part of the process is to learn the truth about those whose lives have been celebrated. Many of my friends have posted memes around the theme of “Columbus didn’t discover anything.” Christopher Columbus was seeking a trade route to India when he came ashore at Guanahani, an island in the Bahamas, on October 12, 1492. His navigation calculations included a gross error about the size of the planet, leading to the misnaming of the indigenous people of the Americas as “Indians.” North, Central, and South America got their names from another geographic explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, but that is a different story. Labeling the indigenous people he encountered “Indians” wasn’t Columbus’ worst offense. Columbus and the men in his employ treated the people living in the places they traveled and occupied with extreme brutality and violence. They used slavery and forced natives to work for the sake of profit.
Their brutality and violence was justified by a religious doctrine coming from a series of papal bulls, or official decrees from the pope collectively known as the Doctrine of Discovery. The first of those papal bulls, Dum Diversas, was issued by Pope Nicolas V in 1452. The Doctrine of Discovery gave authorization to explorers to claim “terra nullis” or uninhabited any place that was not populated by Christians. Under that doctrine land was seized from the people who had inhabited it from time immemorial. Beyond authorizing the illegal seizure of lands, the Doctrine of Discovery was used to justify genocide of native peoples.
In July 2013, the 29th General Synod of the United Church of Christ passed a resolution of witness calling for the UCC to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery. That resolution had among its official sponsors the South Dakota Conference of the United Church of Christ. I had the honor of serving as Moderator of the Conference and sitting on the Conference Board of Directors when the resolution was forwarded to the General Synod by the Conference.
It took another decade for the Roman Catholic Church to officially repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery. Pope Francis issued an official statement on March 30, 2023 that said in part “The Catholic Church therefore repudiates those concepts that fail to recognize the inherent human rights of Indigenous peoples, including what has become known as the legal and political ‘doctrine of discovery.’” The statement equivocated a bit when it came to accepting responsibility for the results of previous papal bulls stating that those papal bulls were manipulated by colonial powers. Nonetheless the official repudiation has been accepted by many Indigenous peoples as a gesture of reconciliation.
While Italian and Spanish settlers have contributed richly to the diversity of the United States and the presence of those cultures and traditions has much to be celebrated, it seems misplaced to focus that celebration on the person of Christopher Columbus or on the day his ships first came ashore in the Americas. Instead, one of the ways I recognized the day yesterday was to once again remember the day when I walked with Matt Iron Hawk through the cemetery behind the Bridger United Church of Christ. Bridger is located near the site where the survivors of the Wounded Knee massacre stopped to rest after walking from Pine Ridge during the winter of 1890 - 91. There are graves of Wounded Knee survivors in that cemetery. The place is known as “Takini” in Lakota. Matt was a native Lakota speaker. I asked Matt to translate the word to English for me. Some have said it means “survivor.” Byron Buffalo said it means “barely surviving.” Matt told me it means, “We’re still here!”
Whatever we call the day and whenever we observe it, the presence of the Indigenous peoples of this land is worthy of celebration and thanksgiving. It is also worth way more than a single day of observation.
Washington, where we now live, is one of 13 states that do not celebrate Columbus Day. Yesterday was pretty much business as usual, with state offices, schools, and most city and county offices open. Of course there was no mail service because the Post Office is a federal function. Along with other federal services most major banks observed the day as a holiday as well.
It isn’t just the United States. Columbus Day is observed in Italy and Spain as well as some other countries in the Americas.
We do have an official state holiday in Washington to observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day. The Friday after Thanksgiving is a state holiday officially known as Native American Heritage Day. Like other states, it is mostly observed with Black Friday sales and a lot of shopping. Since we aren’t into shopping all that much we try to observe the holiday by not going shopping, but that is a personal decision.
Across the border, the second Monday of October is Canadian Thanksgiving. The holiday weekend in Canada is celebrated much as Thanksgiving is celebrated in the US with large family meals, religious services, and the like. I often listen to CBC radio when I am driving and yesterday as I ran a few errands, I noticed that there was special holiday programming on CBC. Otherwise, it was pretty much a normal day for us. Our grandchildren were in school. The school bus ran on schedule. Our son went to work as usual at the library. Being retired we took the day off as we do all of the other days.
I’m not sure how to go about educating ourselves about the misinformation that we received in our educations about history. Part of the process is to learn the truth about those whose lives have been celebrated. Many of my friends have posted memes around the theme of “Columbus didn’t discover anything.” Christopher Columbus was seeking a trade route to India when he came ashore at Guanahani, an island in the Bahamas, on October 12, 1492. His navigation calculations included a gross error about the size of the planet, leading to the misnaming of the indigenous people of the Americas as “Indians.” North, Central, and South America got their names from another geographic explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, but that is a different story. Labeling the indigenous people he encountered “Indians” wasn’t Columbus’ worst offense. Columbus and the men in his employ treated the people living in the places they traveled and occupied with extreme brutality and violence. They used slavery and forced natives to work for the sake of profit.
Their brutality and violence was justified by a religious doctrine coming from a series of papal bulls, or official decrees from the pope collectively known as the Doctrine of Discovery. The first of those papal bulls, Dum Diversas, was issued by Pope Nicolas V in 1452. The Doctrine of Discovery gave authorization to explorers to claim “terra nullis” or uninhabited any place that was not populated by Christians. Under that doctrine land was seized from the people who had inhabited it from time immemorial. Beyond authorizing the illegal seizure of lands, the Doctrine of Discovery was used to justify genocide of native peoples.
In July 2013, the 29th General Synod of the United Church of Christ passed a resolution of witness calling for the UCC to repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery. That resolution had among its official sponsors the South Dakota Conference of the United Church of Christ. I had the honor of serving as Moderator of the Conference and sitting on the Conference Board of Directors when the resolution was forwarded to the General Synod by the Conference.
It took another decade for the Roman Catholic Church to officially repudiate the Doctrine of Discovery. Pope Francis issued an official statement on March 30, 2023 that said in part “The Catholic Church therefore repudiates those concepts that fail to recognize the inherent human rights of Indigenous peoples, including what has become known as the legal and political ‘doctrine of discovery.’” The statement equivocated a bit when it came to accepting responsibility for the results of previous papal bulls stating that those papal bulls were manipulated by colonial powers. Nonetheless the official repudiation has been accepted by many Indigenous peoples as a gesture of reconciliation.
While Italian and Spanish settlers have contributed richly to the diversity of the United States and the presence of those cultures and traditions has much to be celebrated, it seems misplaced to focus that celebration on the person of Christopher Columbus or on the day his ships first came ashore in the Americas. Instead, one of the ways I recognized the day yesterday was to once again remember the day when I walked with Matt Iron Hawk through the cemetery behind the Bridger United Church of Christ. Bridger is located near the site where the survivors of the Wounded Knee massacre stopped to rest after walking from Pine Ridge during the winter of 1890 - 91. There are graves of Wounded Knee survivors in that cemetery. The place is known as “Takini” in Lakota. Matt was a native Lakota speaker. I asked Matt to translate the word to English for me. Some have said it means “survivor.” Byron Buffalo said it means “barely surviving.” Matt told me it means, “We’re still here!”
Whatever we call the day and whenever we observe it, the presence of the Indigenous peoples of this land is worthy of celebration and thanksgiving. It is also worth way more than a single day of observation.
