Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines
Mon Petit Coin by Norm Léveillée
Mon Petit Coin by Norm Léveillée
Columbus Day
A National Holiday - or A Day of Mourning?
First of all, you need to know that I have an Algonquin ancestor by the name of Mite8ameg8k8e who married Pierre Couc, a French solider/trader in the 17th century. I was born an American of an American mother and a French-Canadian father who became an American citizen. Both my paternal and maternal ancestors are of French-Canadian origin, in addition to my Algonquin ancestry. Will I be able to write an unbiased opinion?
However, I am a Métis - a descendant of mixed blood: French-Canadian and Algonquin. I am proud of my heritage - both the "white" and the "red". Because of this heritage, I am a Catholic. I am sure that you will read some bias on my part, but then I'm writing this article!
All American children of my generation learned that Christopher Columbus was one of the first to discover the New World. Because of this discovery, and many other discoveries, the great American nation was born and is florishing today - a race of people of mixed European origins as well as African-Americans. As Americans, we are to be proud of this discovery by Columbus, even though he wasn't the first "white European" to set foot on the American continent, and others. However, we were never told in our history classes what the discoverers in fact did to the people found in this "New World". The reason? History was written by the white European settlers and their descendants. It was only recently, within the last 50 years or so, that we learned another side to this "discovery history". Those of our ancestors who were Métis in the ensuing years were made to feel that being a Métis was something that was to be hidden and not passed on to the next generation.
As a result of Columbus' discovery, the Spanish conquisitors in the name of the King and Queen of Spain, as well as the Catholic Church, conquered the native peoples whom they discovered, either by destroying the natives and their culture or by enslaving them since they believed that the natives were not "human". They conquered and destroyed numerous tribes in what is now South America, Central America and the southwest part of North America. The Spanish were ruthless. Some even claimed that they were doing this in the "name of God" because these people needed to be christianized or destroyed. There were priests who truly believed that the "pagans" needed to be baptized and many were christianized.
Do we need to honor these discoverers? do we need to honor Columbus with his own national holiday? If we were to equate his discovery with what his countrymen did to the natives, can we honestly honor this man? these discoverers? these massacres?
The English were warmly welcomed by the natives, as we learned the story of Squanto, and of the first Thanksgiving. Then, with an insatiable quest to acquire land, the English slowly pushed the Natives away from the land on which they lived for thousands of years before the white European invaders. The natives were killed or enslaved because they were "not civilized". Again, there was an attempt by some ministers to christianized the "pagans" and some Indians did accept the new religious beliefs. Can we celebrate a feast, a holiday of a group of people who "bit the hand that fed them" when they were starving?
Little did the invaders know or cared about the culture and religion of these natives, who believed in the supernatural, in a deity or deities much akin to what Christians believed. If you believe in Creationism, then you know that all of us are descendants of Adam and Eve. Therefore, the Native Americans were also descendants and believed in God, in spirits both good and evil. Where did this knowledge come from?
The French accepted the Natives not really out of the goodness of their hearts, but for a purely economic reason. The "voyageurs" - fur traders - married Native American women in order to cement the relationship between the French and the Natives in the trading economy. However, those Catholic priests, the Jesuits, did not force their beliefs upon the Natives, as did the Spanish priests. They melded the beliefs of the Church within the beliefs of the Native Americans, especially those of the Hurons and of the Algonquins.
In June of 2003, I wrote an article about my cousin Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha, using excerpts reprinted by permission of the publisher from FACING EAST FROM INDIAN COUNTRY: A NATIVE HISTORY OF EARLY AMERICA by Daniel K. Richter. I used a quote attributed to Francis Parkman, a 19th century historian:
Spanish civilization crushed the Indian;
English civilization scorned and neglected him;
French civilization embraced and cherished him.
During and after the American Revolution, the Native Americans did not fare any better under the Americans. The Indians were pressured by both sides, the British and the Americans, to join as allies. The first treaty was with the Delaware tribe signed at Fort Pitt on September 17, 1778 allowing the Americans to pass through the Delaware country in order to attack the British posts. The Americans would buy corn and supplies and the Delaware warriors would enlist in the Army. The Americans did not keep their promise: they did not provide the protection guaranteed under this treaty and the militia killed Delaware chief White Eyes and the Shawnee chief Cornstalk. This breaking of the first treaty was the beginning of a pattern of treaty-making and treaty-breaking that continued for over one hundred years in these United States.
In addition, General John Sullivan and the Continental Army defeated the Iroquois and marched through their territory burning fields and destroying villages in retaliation for the Iroquois joining with the British during the Revolution. The Mahicans joined the Patriots and the war cost them almost half of their adult male population and they found that the Americans had taken over their lands while they were away fighting with the Patriots. These are just three examples of what happened to the First Peoples of the New World. The rest is history.
Therefore, as a descendant of a Native American, should I accept Columbus Day, a "national Holiday" celebrating the destruction and enslavement of thousands of Native Americans who had lived in America for centuries before the "white European" invaders came to destroy the people, the culture, the land of my ancestors? Or, should I consider this day a "Day of Mourning" for all those innocent people who were murdered or enslaved because they were not "civilized" nor "christianized"? Or, should I accept that which someone who is not of Native American ancestry told me "To the conqueror, go the spoils!", as history has taught us!
Will I be considered unpatriotic by the "Americans", descendants of the "white European" or respected by the "Native Americans", descendants of the First Nation people? What is my choice here?
What is your opinion?
Thank you - Merci bien - Ktsi Oléoneh
(English - French - Algonquin)
On our coming near the house, two mats were spread to sit upon and immediately some food was served in well-made bowls; two men were also dispatched at once with bows and arrows in quest of game, who soon after brought a pair of pigeons which they had shot ... The natives were good people, for when they saw I would not remain, they supposed I was afraid of their bows and arrows, and taking the arrows they broke them into pieces and threw them into the fire. - Henry HudsonWe are now going to speak to our eldest brothers, the white people; we have heard all your talks to the red people and hope you will hear ours. We though that all the English people were as one people but now we hear that they have a difference amongst themselves. It is our desire that they drop their disputes and not spoil one another; as all the red people are living in friendship with one another, we desire that the white people will do the same. It is the custom with the red people when they send such a talk and these tokens to prevent any of our warriors from going to war and we hope that the white people will do the same and agree to our talk --- We send this wing and tobacco and lookat the wind and agree to each others' talk -- Creak Council to the Americans, 1775.
We were driven by the sharp end of the guns of the Long Knives. Our moccasins trickled with blood in the sand, and the water was red in the river. - Chief Kin-Jo-I-No, on the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
Americans grew from the scum of the great water, when it was troubled by an evil spirit and the froth was driven into the woods by a strong east wind. They are numerous, but I hate them. They are unust; they have taken away your lands, which were not made for them. - Tenskwatawa, The Prophet from Prophet's Town. (He was the brother of Tecunseh)
Sell a country! Why not sell the air, the clouds, and the great sea, as well as the earth? Did not the Great Spirit make them all for the use of his children? - Tecunseh, Shawnee leader.
Here is a chance ... such as will never occur again -- for us Indians of North America to form ourselves into great combination. - Tecumseh, before the War of 1812.
My friends, for many years we have been in this country; we never go the Great Father's country and bother him about anything. It is his people who come to our country and bother us, do many bad things, and teach our people to be bad ... Before you people ever crossed the ocean to come to this country, and from that time to this, you have never proposed to buy a country that was equal to this in riches. My friends, this country that you have come to buy is the best country that we have; ... this country is mine, I was raised in it; my forefathers lived and died in it; and I wish to remain in it. - Crow Feather, Lakota
I was born on the prairies where the wind blew and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures. - Geronimo, Apache.
The sun rose dim on us in the morning, and at night it sunk in a dark cloud, and looked like a ball of fire. That was the last sun that shone on Black Hawk. His heart is dead, and no longer beats quick in his bosom. He is now a prisoner of the white man; they will do with him as they wish ... He can do no more. He is near his end. His sun is setting, and he will rise no more. - Black Hawk, Sauk and Fox.
Ed. The last quote above appropriately sums up what the White Europeans did to our brothers, the Native Americans.
The above quotes were taken from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Native American History by William C. Fleming © 2003, Penguin Group USA.
Index of Articles
Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines
Copyright © 2003 & 2004 & 2005 Norm Léveillée
Tous droits réservés
Created 1 Feb 2003