1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey 2 00:00:06,600 --> 00:00:10,240 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum Here for more than five hundred 3 00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:13,119 Speaker 1: years after stepping ashore on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, 4 00:00:13,440 --> 00:00:16,160 Speaker 1: Christopher Columbus is a divisive figure here in the so 5 00:00:16,239 --> 00:00:20,040 Speaker 1: called New World. He opened to European explorers and colonists 6 00:00:20,680 --> 00:00:23,560 Speaker 1: on the second Monday in October. As many Americans celebrate 7 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:25,959 Speaker 1: Columbus Day with a fall cookout or big sales at 8 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,440 Speaker 1: the mall, others will observe Indigenous People's Day, a holiday 9 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:33,560 Speaker 1: born of protest against a conflicting historical icon. In May 10 00:00:33,560 --> 00:00:36,479 Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen, Vermont became the most recent state to 11 00:00:36,520 --> 00:00:40,520 Speaker 1: officially replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day. Vermont joined 12 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:45,320 Speaker 1: North Carolina, Alaska, South Dakota, Oregon, Minnesota, Maine, and New Mexico, 13 00:00:45,479 --> 00:00:47,640 Speaker 1: plus the District of Columbia and at least a hundred 14 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:50,559 Speaker 1: and thirty cities across the United States that have replaced 15 00:00:50,640 --> 00:00:54,160 Speaker 1: Columbus Day over the tainted legacy of the fifteenth century explorer. 16 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 1: Columbus was once revered as the brave navigator from Genoa, Italy, 17 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:03,040 Speaker 1: who defied credit to seek out a Western passage to India. Sure, 18 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:06,120 Speaker 1: he miscalculated the distance from Spain to India by nearly 19 00:01:06,160 --> 00:01:09,840 Speaker 1: eight thousand nautical miles that's around fourteen thousand kilometers, but 20 00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:13,320 Speaker 1: he stumbled onto two continents largely unknown to the Europeans 21 00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:17,319 Speaker 1: in the process, and no Columbus never actually stepped foot 22 00:01:17,319 --> 00:01:20,840 Speaker 1: in North America, but many European Americans still saw him 23 00:01:20,880 --> 00:01:25,320 Speaker 1: as the nation's de facto discoverer. But then a new 24 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:28,640 Speaker 1: image of Columbus began to emerge. From his journals. We 25 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:31,400 Speaker 1: learned that when Columbus first met the indigenous Hyeno people 26 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,080 Speaker 1: of the Caribbean Islands and noted that they were peaceful 27 00:01:34,160 --> 00:01:37,560 Speaker 1: and didn't have advanced weapons technology, his first thought was 28 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:41,480 Speaker 1: to enslave them. Columbus wrote, they would make good servants. 29 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:44,040 Speaker 1: With fifty men, they can all be subjugated and made 30 00:01:44,040 --> 00:01:47,800 Speaker 1: to do what is required of them. Indeed, on Columbus's 31 00:01:47,880 --> 00:01:50,559 Speaker 1: second voyage to the America's he rounded up one thousand, 32 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 1: five hundred native Arowak men, women and children and held 33 00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:56,160 Speaker 1: them in pens while his ships prepared to sail back 34 00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:58,880 Speaker 1: to Spain. He chose five hundred to be taken to 35 00:01:58,960 --> 00:02:02,000 Speaker 1: Europe and sold into slavery. Two hundred of them died 36 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:05,240 Speaker 1: on the journey, and those who remained in their homeland 37 00:02:05,800 --> 00:02:08,560 Speaker 1: through a combination of forced labor in Spanish colonies and 38 00:02:08,600 --> 00:02:12,239 Speaker 1: European diseases like smallpox, the native populations of the Bahamas 39 00:02:12,240 --> 00:02:16,040 Speaker 1: and Hispaniola were virtually wiped out within decades of Columbus's arrival. 40 00:02:17,160 --> 00:02:20,320 Speaker 1: By low estimates, there were one hundred thousand Arawak on 41 00:02:20,400 --> 00:02:26,160 Speaker 1: Hispaniola in fourteen. By fifteen fourteen, only thirty two thousand remained, 42 00:02:26,480 --> 00:02:28,840 Speaker 1: and by fifteen forty two there were only two hundred. 43 00:02:29,520 --> 00:02:32,079 Speaker 1: Some historians claimed that up to three million Tyano died 44 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:36,000 Speaker 1: in that same time period. We spoke with Carrie Gibson, 45 00:02:36,240 --> 00:02:39,480 Speaker 1: historian and author of Empires Crossroads, a History of the 46 00:02:39,520 --> 00:02:43,680 Speaker 1: Caribbean from Columbus to the present day. She said Columbus 47 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:46,280 Speaker 1: didn't come over in the spirit of scientific inquiry and 48 00:02:46,400 --> 00:02:51,080 Speaker 1: cultural sensitivity of First, he was mistaken in his navigation. Second, 49 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:53,840 Speaker 1: he was looking for gold and for people to enslave. 50 00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:56,679 Speaker 1: When you realize that, it's very hard to still hold 51 00:02:56,720 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 1: him up as a positive symbol, it makes a lot 52 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:01,480 Speaker 1: of sense that some people are pushing back against Columbus 53 00:03:01,560 --> 00:03:06,000 Speaker 1: day The movement to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's 54 00:03:06,040 --> 00:03:08,480 Speaker 1: Day started back in nineteen seventy seven at a United 55 00:03:08,560 --> 00:03:13,360 Speaker 1: Nations International Conference on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations. Instead of 56 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:17,400 Speaker 1: celebrating Columbus's arrival as the foundation of the America's, participants 57 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:20,760 Speaker 1: proposed an alternative holiday that would recognize that Native people's 58 00:03:20,800 --> 00:03:25,560 Speaker 1: had inhabited these lands for millennia. South Dakota ditched Columbus 59 00:03:25,600 --> 00:03:29,240 Speaker 1: Day for Native Americans Day in ninete in Berkeley, California, 60 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:31,680 Speaker 1: became the first place to switch to Indigenous People's Day. 61 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:36,440 Speaker 1: In Since then, more cities and states have distanced themselves 62 00:03:36,440 --> 00:03:39,320 Speaker 1: from Columbus and embraced a new holiday that, in the 63 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:43,680 Speaker 1: words of Maine's proclamation, celebrates quote the historic, cultural, and 64 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: contemporary significance of the indigenous peoples of the lands that 65 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:52,240 Speaker 1: later became known as the Americas. The anti Columbus Day 66 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:55,560 Speaker 1: movement has its detractors, though some believe it's a case 67 00:03:55,560 --> 00:03:59,000 Speaker 1: of political correctness run wild, while others alleged that repealing 68 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:01,440 Speaker 1: Columbus Day would be in a front to another ethnic group, 69 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:06,320 Speaker 1: Italian Americans. The National Italian American Foundation or n i 70 00:04:06,520 --> 00:04:09,600 Speaker 1: a F wrote in a statement when Columbus Day was 71 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:12,640 Speaker 1: founded in nineteen thirty seven. The federal holiday provided a 72 00:04:12,680 --> 00:04:14,920 Speaker 1: sense of dignity and self worth in light of the 73 00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:18,680 Speaker 1: hostility and discrimination that many Italian immigrants, Italian Americans, and 74 00:04:18,800 --> 00:04:24,000 Speaker 1: Catholics more broadly faced. An estimated four million Italian immigrants 75 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,440 Speaker 1: came to America between eighteen eighty and nineteen twenty, mostly 76 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:31,760 Speaker 1: farmers fleeing desperate poverty in their home country. Italian immigrants 77 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:35,760 Speaker 1: faced terrible discrimination and outright violence, and early Italian American 78 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:38,960 Speaker 1: civic groups latched onto the Genovesi Columbus as a symbol 79 00:04:38,960 --> 00:04:43,400 Speaker 1: of pride, connecting Italians to the broader American experience. The 80 00:04:43,400 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: first Columbus Day celebration was in seventeen ninety two to 81 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:49,719 Speaker 1: commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of Columbus's first voyage to 82 00:04:49,760 --> 00:04:54,320 Speaker 1: America in San Francisco. Italian communities started celebrating an annual 83 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: Columbus Day as early as eighteen sixty nine. Then, in 84 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,159 Speaker 1: eighteen ninety one, the Italian immigrant community in New Orleans 85 00:05:01,440 --> 00:05:04,480 Speaker 1: was the victim of the largest mass lynching in US history. 86 00:05:04,920 --> 00:05:10,320 Speaker 1: Eleven people were killed. Following this, in President Benjamin Harrison 87 00:05:10,360 --> 00:05:13,640 Speaker 1: called for a general holiday the four anniversary of Columbus 88 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:18,000 Speaker 1: landing and proclaimed Columbus a pioneer of progress and enlightenment. 89 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:22,200 Speaker 1: At the urging of the Knights of Columbus. President Franklin D. 90 00:05:22,320 --> 00:05:25,880 Speaker 1: Roosevelt made Columbus Day an official federal holiday in seven 91 00:05:26,200 --> 00:05:28,200 Speaker 1: and the holiday has since become a day when many 92 00:05:28,200 --> 00:05:32,159 Speaker 1: Italian Americans celebrate their heritage through community festivals and parades. 93 00:05:33,279 --> 00:05:35,280 Speaker 1: Given the painful history that led to the founding of 94 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:37,800 Speaker 1: Columbus Day, groups like the n I a F are 95 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:40,480 Speaker 1: some of the staunchest opponents of state and national efforts 96 00:05:40,480 --> 00:05:43,880 Speaker 1: to erase it from the calendar. The n I a 97 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:46,839 Speaker 1: F wrote, we believe that to repeal Columbus Day as 98 00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:49,599 Speaker 1: a federal holiday, which is celebrated by over twenty million 99 00:05:49,600 --> 00:05:53,080 Speaker 1: Italian Americans, only to replace it by another holiday celebrated 100 00:05:53,080 --> 00:05:57,200 Speaker 1: by another ethnic group would be culturally insensitive. The group 101 00:05:57,240 --> 00:05:59,560 Speaker 1: says it does not oppose in Jenous People's Day as 102 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:04,040 Speaker 1: long as held on another day beside Columbus Day. Gibson 103 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:07,159 Speaker 1: the Historian doesn't have an easy answer for solving the 104 00:06:07,200 --> 00:06:11,120 Speaker 1: Columbus Day controversy, but encourages deeper reflection on the long 105 00:06:11,200 --> 00:06:13,719 Speaker 1: and complicated history of the lands and people that we 106 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:18,400 Speaker 1: call American. She said, the minute Columbus arrived in Hispaniola, 107 00:06:18,680 --> 00:06:22,159 Speaker 1: everything changed. We're still having discussions about how it changed, 108 00:06:22,240 --> 00:06:24,560 Speaker 1: and historians are still dealing with the legacy of that 109 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:32,640 Speaker 1: initial encounter. Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and 110 00:06:32,680 --> 00:06:35,160 Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of 111 00:06:35,200 --> 00:06:37,440 Speaker 1: I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more on this 112 00:06:37,560 --> 00:06:40,040 Speaker 1: and lots of other controversial topics, visit our home planet, 113 00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,720 Speaker 1: how Stuff Works dot com, and for more podcast from 114 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:45,719 Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 115 00:06:45,760 --> 00:06:47,480 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.