"They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells," Christopher Columbus wrote in his logbook in 1495. "They willingly traded everything they owned.... They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane.... They would make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold."
http://www.truthout.org/1012091

Happy Indigenous Peoples Day

Posted on Oct 11, 2009
Library of Congress / Currier and Ives

Read historian Howard Zinn’s account of that genocidal, gold-crazed maniac Christopher Columbus, and it’s impossible to think this man deserves a holiday.

What he wanted was gold, and when none could be found he started wiping out the native people of the New World. —PZS

Howard Zinn, “A People’s History of the United States”:

The Indians had been given an impossible task. The only gold around was bits of dust garnered from the streams. So they fled, were hunted down with dogs, and were killed.

Trying to put together an army of resistance, the Arawaks faced Spaniards who had armor, muskets, swords, horses. When the Spaniards took prisoners they hanged them or burned them to death. Among the Arawaks, mass suicides began, with cassava poison. Infants were killed to save them from the Spaniards. In two years, through murder, mutilation, or suicide, half of the 250,000 Indians on Haiti were dead.

When it became clear that there was no gold left, the Indians were taken as slave labor on huge estates, known later as encomiendas. They were worked at a ferocious pace, and died by the thousands. By the year 1515, there were perhaps fifty thousand Indians left. By 1550, there were five hundred. A report of the year 1650 shows none of the original Arawaks or their descendants left on the island.

more:
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/20091011_happy_indigenous_peoples_day/
http://books.google.com/books?id=P8V7J5qm5-YC&lpg=PP1&dq=a%20people%27s%20history%20of%20the%20united%20states%20columbus&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

Give credit where it's due. He *did* discover America.

was incredibly cruel to the native peoples -- wiped them out matter of fact. Not a person that I admire at all.

sorry buddy, you'll be doing that all by your lonesome..


Columbus Did NOT Discover America

From the United Confederation of Taino People


To: All people of the world
Congress of the United States
Senate of the United States
President of the United States

We the undersigned come together before you to request that each of these governing bodies take all necessary action to bring about a Federal Holiday for Native American Elected Leaders, To include Congressional hearings on the racial exclusion of Native Americans in movies, television, sports advertising, music companies, etc.

With the special government to government relationship between the Indian Government of America and the Federal Government it is fitting for the Federal Government to enact this holiday, and conduct Congressional hearings.

Indian governments and the people they represent are requesting that the federal government bring about a National Holiday for Native Americans to be celebrated by all citizens of America and people around the world.

This holiday would pay tribute to Indian Tribal Leaders to include Alaskan Leaders and Hawaiian Leaders. This holiday would also pay tribute to those that endured the world's longest holocaust and most costly in human lives.

It is further stated that no Indian Government nor its people find reason to celebrate and pay for Columbus Day. Seventeen states do not recognize Columbus Day. The state of South Dakota has changed Columbus day to Native American Day.

Therefore be it resolved that the Federal Government should reevaluate Columbus Day by moving it back to its original day the second Wednesday of October and not be a tax paid holiday as is St. Patrick's Day and Octoberfest, and make the second Monday of October a Federal holiday for Native Americans.

The polls we conducted across the country show that the vast majority of Americans prefer changing Columbus Day as to creating a whole new holiday.

It is inappropriate for Indian children and children of America to celebrate Columbus discovering a nation of people and not having a holiday paying tribute to the people of those nations.

To sign the petition: http://www.petitiononline.com/indian/petition.html

To learn more:http://www.uctp.org/

from: http://www.nativevillage.org/Editorials/Petition%20for%20American%20Indian%20Day.htm

:yoiks:

I don't know how that woman keeps getting younger. Lots of good stories, inside baseball, music:

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/10/12/democracy_now_special_an_hour_of

Sure, Columbus was Italian, but he became the first of a line of conquistadors that he opened the door for.