NaBloWriMo #8~~Columbus Day?! Come on!!!

Since I didn't know any better in school, it was considered a very good thing because he "discovered" the "new world" and brought civilization to the savages...

Umm..really?I had always heard of Columbus:

IN 1492
"In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.

A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.

Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.

Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.

Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.

October 12 their dream came true,
You never saw a happier crew!

"Indians!  Indians!"  Columbus cried;
His heart was filled with joyful pride.

But "India" the land was not;
It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.

The Arakawa natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice.

Columbus sailed on to find some gold
To bring back home, as he'd been told.

He made the trip again and again,
Trading gold to bring to Spain.

The first American?  No, not quite.
But Columbus was brave, and he was bright."

Oh boy is there tonnes of shite in this!!!
He wasn't looking for India though. It was Japan! Just a bit off...dontcha think?

The "Indians" were Arawak not Arakawa. AND it was a catch all term for the ones that were amenable to the Spaniards. Caribs were war-like cannibals that didn't agree or wanna have anything to do with the Spanish. Isabella said that only if the people were better off being slaves, they could be taken as slaves. If they were labelled Cannibals, the land grab and massacre were a given.

A look out first saw land, not Columbus, even though he said that he had seen it the previous night and didn't want to get anyone's hopes up in case he was wrong...Columbus got the lifelong pension for being the first person to spy the "New World." Rodrigo de Triana, the guy who actually DID got squat! No credit, no nothing.  Part of that might have been because he was Morisco, a Muslim that converted to Christianity so they wouldn't get the old heave ho from Spain and Portugal.

He didn't trade ANYTHING, but stole some dozen or so natives to show off to Ferdinand and Isabella. Only about half of them made it.

Brave. Nope. Cocky bastard maybe.
Bright. Deffo not. He had steel swords while the natives had stone or shell knives and daggers. I won't even discuss black powder weapons.



Who are REALLY the savages??



As for the pompous twit that thought he DISCOVERED the "New World". Well, lotsa folks got there ahead of him...
"America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up." 
Oscar Wilde

Folks crossed from Asia over the Bering Land Bridge, tens of thousands of years ago. And there were already Aboriginal Tribes living on both sides of the Strait. The Yupik people of Russia and Alaska had several migrations back and forth 3,000 years ago.

The Vikings came over around the year 1,000. Leif Erickson wrote about his adventures in Vineland(Newfoundland), which was just a hop, skip and a jump from Greenland.  Then there's the Kensingston Rune Stone found 1898, in Minnesota which was dated to 1362. Along with the Newport Tower in Rhode Island,and the Dighton Writing Rock in Berkeley, Massachusetts.

There's St Brendan the Navigator who took a few brothers on a ship with him for 7 years on a voyage to find Eden or Paradise about 530 CE.  But in 1976, a bunch of intrepid gents set out from Brandon Creek on the West Coast of Ireland in a leather curragh. They DID make it, so it IS possible, but no definitive proof like at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland.

To really and truly, fuck with peoples heads, look at the Olmec sculptures...


Whom does HE look like??? Looks rather African to me and to a bunch of other folks...

There's an author called Frank Joseph that edits a magazine called Ancient American which explains some of these hypotheses.

This "holiday" was named "Columbus Day" to garner votes for FDR from the Italian Americans in 1937, not just to commemorate this day of infamy.  

I've heard it now called "Indigenous Peoples' Day" I sure like that better. Especially since I fell in with a crowd of NA buddies. Most are Cherokee, but there's Creek,  Blackfeet, Ojibwe, Apache and a couple of others who make up the Etsy Native Forum Team. 

I've also heard that some folks want to name today, National Explorers Day, which would include Space, the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Oceans, inside the Earth, and the Moon and Mars. I think this is the best of them all...