His voyage to America opened the door to the founding of the United States, thus was blessed by God, too. How intertwined Columbus is with this American vision is evident in the number of monuments to him; according to researchers at the Monument Lab, he ranks third behind Lincoln and Washington. The controversy over what to do with all those statues likely will play out for years.
Sicilians were targeted for lynching in part because they worked the same jobs as African Americans and often lived in their communities, leading Southerners to consider them more Black than white.
The New Orleans lynching was roundly praised. Eleven of his Italian assassins lynched by a mob. The Italian government was not so sanguine. It broke off diplomatic relations with the U. Nevertheless, that proclamation ultimately set the stage for a federal Columbus Day holiday , created in So why should we keep referring to Columbus as an Italian hero?
Not only does this holiday allow the country to educate itself on the loaded history surrounding the holiday, it also celebrates the perseverance and power that Native communities continue to have in the world.
Not only is it a celebration of our people, it is also a celebration of our culture, our food, and our art. That shift would require people to think about the fact that this country was founded on taking over territory that belonged to the Indigenous peoples who are still here and whose ancestors lived here for thousands of years and had their own societies, their own culture, and their own political institutions.
We also have to respect the fact that modern-day Indian tribes in the United States are governments; they have sovereignty; they have land; and we still have the right to independence within the U. I tell my students that this is a very uncomfortable part of U. The Black Lives Matter movement is a great analog because some people want to ignore the fact that police act in ways that are racially discriminatory. In the same way, the majority in the United States prefer not to think about the fact that most of this country was forcibly taken away from the Indigenous populations.
The time for a reckoning with the unjust treatment of Native American people is overdue. Co-president of Natives at Harvard College. A lot of changes that are happening now we owe to Black Lives Matter protesters. It has really forced a lot of people in power and a lot of regular American citizens to reckon with the fact that our country has very racist origins and structures in place today.
But I am much more hopeful for change at the state level than I am at the national level. Many people know that Columbus never actually set foot in the U. Even celebrating Columbus as the one who discovered America is completely false. Tell students that it is common to have some misunderstandings about who Columbus was and American colonization because we often do not learn the real history. Tell students that now you are going to watch a video that tells a more accurate story about who Columbus was.
After watching the video, you will pause the lesson to check in about how they are feeling. Introduce the vocabulary term colonize. Preview vocabulary from the video with students words in the video in order of appearance are brutal, conquest, discriminate, icon, glorify, patriotism and Indigenous. Here are some places to pause and make sure students understand the content of the video. Tell students that the image shows some of the laws and practices that harmed Native Nations after European colonizers took their land, starting with Columbus.
These laws and practices are some of the reasons that Native Americans and others do not see Columbus as a hero.
And note that, even when using a source with useful information, it is crucial to think critically. Have small groups of students discuss what they wrote down in their L column while watching.
Encourage students to add to their notes. Then, prompt students to discuss the following: Why did people start celebrating Columbus Day in the United States? How were Italian immigrants being treated when they arrived in America, and what did celebrating Columbus do for their community? Why do you think some people have rejected celebrating Columbus since historians have examined his legacy? What are some cities and states doing now instead?
Continue the discussion about the origins of Columbus day and the discrimination against Italian immigrants whole group. Ask students what myths on the whole-group KWL need to be crossed out, what should be added to the L column and what they are wondering because of the video.
Add student thinking to the chart. Roosevelt designated it a national holiday, and in Congress changed the date from October 12 to the second Monday of October. Columbus Day celebrated Italians. But for many with Indigenous ancestry, it was a slap in the face—a celebration of invasion, theft, brutality, and colonization.
Columbus and his crew enabled and perpetrated the kidnapping, enslavement, forced assimilation , rape and sexual abuse of Native people, including children; the Native American population shrank by about half after European contact. For Indigenous Americans, the landing celebrated by some as a day of triumphant discovery was the beginning of an incursion onto land that had long been their home.
In the s and s, protests against the holiday grew. In , ahead of the th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre, in which U. The governor, George S. Mickelson, agreed , and the holiday has replaced Columbus Day in the state ever since. Though Italian American groups protested the move, it fueled ongoing activism among Indigenous people. In addition, multiple states have stopped celebrating Columbus Day altogether. According to Pew Research, only 21 states offer their government workers paid holidays on the second Monday in October.
In a similar spirit of reckoning, in April New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell apologized for the lynchings of Italian Americans, more than a century after the incident.
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