Columbus’ Voyage Without the Distortion of Glamor
Every student can remember the decade old rhyme sung around the classroom in harmonious rhythm: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Children proceeded to learn about the aspiring explorer and how he and his three ships ventured across the Atlantic Ocean with hopes of discovering the New World. Students read of the introductory dinner, the one in which the Natives welcomed Christopher Columbus to their dinner tables and shared their tales of farming and the secrets of the rich, uncharted soil. These young students made projects, reports - even participated in mock dinners - just to assimilate the culture of Columbus’ peaceful journey to the New World. However, what history books fail to teach these children is the litany of disease Columbus brought with him. How, instead of singing about his journey, they could be singing about how Columbus paraded the Native’s culture and destroyed it. How, instead of reading about the celebratory dinner the Natives and Columbus shared, they could learn that it never happened. Instead, they could learn that Columbus murdered those Natives only after learning how to use their rich soil to his own advantage. They could learn that Columbus did not discover the New World - he destroyed what was once there and rebuilt it as his own. There is no mention of this slaughter in textbooks. There is no mention of the tangible wrath Columbus unleashed on the Native people. Despite being cemented in history as an ambitious explorer who brought riches to the New World, Christopher Columbus and his voyage led to the destruction of native Indians, normalization of genocide, and the disrespect for native culture today.
            In the simplest of contexts, Columbus’ wrath can be dismissed as the Columbian exchange; the trading of plants, animals, and other goods. However, through quick analysis, one can come to the conclusion that the ‘Columbian exchange’ is a modern day front for the diseases and illnesses Columbus brought with him that would, over time, demolish the native population. The harshest of critics assert that this exchange can be regarded as biological warfare. The immune systems of the Native Americans were not equipped to handle the surge of new infectious diseases, unlike the European explorers. The clash of culture led to the Natives being incredibly susceptible to illness. In the post-Columbian era, 30 diseases either worsened or were introduced to the native population, among the worst of them being smallpox, measles, malaria, typhus, and the bubonic plague.[1] Columbus’ wrath was more catastrophic than the Black Death in medieval Europe, which accounted for 25 million deaths. Prior to Columbus’s arrival, the population in Hispaniola was 250,000 people. The new diseases wiped out 236,000 people. That is nearly 95% of their population.
            However, those 236,000 people only account for a small portion of Columbus’ entire destruction. He subjected the Natives to cruel work practices and slavery from the start. His pattern of destroying native populations is no anomaly or outlier; it is a systematic fact that Columbus destroyed cultures. It was late 1492 when Christopher Columbus encountered the Natives for the first time on the shore of a small Caribbean island. He immediately subjected six Natives to be taken as his. He writes, in his journal, “They should be good servants…I, our Lord being pleased, will take hence, at the time of my departure, six natives for your Highnesses.”[2] Upon Columbus returning to Spain, he paraded these captives through the streets of Barcelona and Seville. Columbus sent thousands of Taino ‘Indians’ from their homeland in Hispaniola across the Atlantic Ocean to Spain to be sold. There were three fates for the Taino people: die a horrid death on the journey, work until death in Spain, or stay in Hispaniola as gold miners under the rule of Columbus. Those who fell in the last category soon came – understandably – intolerant of Columbus’ ways. They revolted, but Columbus was prepared. He exuberated extreme violence and degraded those who went against him. He sent his men to kill those involved with the revolt. After their deaths, he ordered their dismembered bodies to be paraded around the streets as a warning to the others. The quarter of a million people who died in Hispaniola was far from the true tally. While the total fatalities are a remarkably unknown fact to many historians, one can turn to the words of Bartolome de las Casas, one of the first European settlers in the Americas. He writes, “...Between 1494 and 1508 more than three million people died from war, slavery, and the mines [Columbus forced Indians to work in]. Who in future generations will believe this? I, myself as an eyewitness can scarce believe it.”
On October 12th, 1492, Columbus landed on the shore of a small Caribbean island. Unfamiliar with the people and the land, he immediately established dominance by capturing six Natives and declaring them his. He wrote to God that these men were to be rewards, to be a thank you for the land God sent him to. On October 12th, 1937, the United States of America declared that the second Monday in October be observed in the name of Christopher Columbus. A federal holiday for the man who can outright be held accountable for the murder of millions and the normalization of genocide. By honoring Columbus with a holiday, we, as a country, are committing so many unjustifiable acts. We are ignoring the plight of Native Americans, the murder of their population, and the disregard for the strength in their culture. Moreover, we are normalizing genocide. Columbus can be held accountable for the deaths of upwards of 3 million people. 3 million people. Do we honor Hitler – who killed six million Jewish people - with a holiday? No. In fact, we do quite the opposite; we honor and remember those victims. This evidently shows that the United States is capable of remembering and honoring the genocide of a population. It raises the question: Why don’t we remember the Native Americans? Why, instead, do we honor the man that killed them? Could it be that by remembering the Jewish people, we are reflecting on a poor time in European history, not American? Are Americans so afraid of admitting defeat and wrongdoing that we chose to justify the acts of a murderer in disguise of a national holiday?
Disregard for genocide and the actual state of the Native land has led to a plethora of misconceptions. One is forced to believe that the Indians lived as savages; people with no culture, no self-sustaining way of life. However, it was quite the opposite. Upon landing on the shore, the men were awestruck. Bernal Diaz del Castillo, one of the first men to reach new land writes, “All about us we saw cities and villages built in the water, their great towers and buildings of masonry rising out of it...When I beheld the scenes around me I thought within myself, this was the garden of the world.” Columbus’ fellow men found themselves in land richer than theirs, surrounded by culture stronger than theirs. They found themselves in “the garden of the world.” They had respect for their culture and the richness it brought them. If the ‘discoverers’ themselves thought this, why are there endless misconceptions that their land was lacking and there was no culture? Even worse, why is there a misconception that they had a savage-like civilization? Why is there a misconception that Columbus discovered these lands when there were already inhabitants? Due to the extreme regard for Native history, people are forced to believe a narrative that is not true.  Many people, especially white people, associate Native Americans with undeserving privilege. They believe they have special rights, such as guaranteed college entry and government money and land. In small border towns around the country there are extreme pockets of racism; those who believe the Natives do not deserve the land beneath their feet. However, one cannot look at this as a matter of special treatment or one group being offered opportunities over another; it is simply a matter of the United States paying back the Natives for the hardships they endured. While there is no tangible offering or amount that can truly embody an apology, the United States is making an attempt to do so. Whether it be preserving land or providing citizenship, the United States has come a long way in terms of their treatment in regards to Native Americans. While there have been a multitude of advancements that promote reconciliation and understanding between the United States and the Native American population, there is no denying the fact that these communities are faced with a plethora of outstanding problems that plague their land and their culture. One incredibly pressing and political issue is the Dakota Access Pipeline. The monstrous 1,200-mile pipeline holds a hefty price-tag of $3,700,000,000. The line is to cut through miles of grounds previously held by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. These grounds include Sacred Stone, Oceti Sakowin, Red Warrior, and Rosebud Sicagu. These sites are burial sites that are deemed highly sacred by all means in regard to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Pictured at the left is all the sacred ground and territory the pipeline would cut through. While the pipeline promises undeniable financial benefits, there is no way the United States can continue with this project. This land was taken from these sacred tribes many years ago; this land held slaves by Columbus; this land is soaked with the blood of their ancestors. To now take away the same land we, as a country, granted back to these Natives, is a pure disgrace to the core values of our country and we should be ashamed by the mere thought of it.
When students sit in a circle and happily sing songs together, they often will not believe the ultimate truth behind those rhymes when they learn of it years later. By teaching students that Columbus was merely a sailor who discovered the new land, we are dismissing the plight and hardship he made the natives endure. We are dismissing the diseases that Columbus brought with him that still affect those communities today. Christopher Columbus, in just two years, killed almost 250,000 Indians. Whether it be through murder, mutilation, being worked to death, or suicide, Columbus is accountable for all these deaths. While Columbus’ death toll is a remarkably unknown fact to many historians, one of his own men, Bartolome de Casas, claims his toll reached 3 million people. While the figure of 3 million is staggering, we must ask ourselves; if Bartolome is wrong, can we dismiss the other hundreds of thousands of Natives that died under Columbus? The one and only simple answer is no. No, we cannot allow ourselves to forget the disgusting and ruthless acts of Christopher Columbus. He was no explorer. He was one to rape young girls and sell them to his fellow men for next to nothing. He was one to enslave entire populations with no forethought. Christopher Columbus is not the hero history has engraved him to be; he is the villain history wishes to forget.