Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum Here for more than five hundred
Speaker 1: years after stepping ashore on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola,
Speaker 1: Christopher Columbus is a divisive figure here in the so
Speaker 1: called New World. He opened to European explorers and colonists
Speaker 1: on the second Monday in October. As many Americans celebrate
Speaker 1: Columbus Day with a fall cookout or big sales at
Speaker 1: the mall, others will observe Indigenous People's Day, a holiday
Speaker 1: born of protest against a conflicting historical icon. In May
Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen, Vermont became the most recent state to
Speaker 1: officially replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day. Vermont joined
Speaker 1: North Carolina, Alaska, South Dakota, Oregon, Minnesota, Maine, and New Mexico,
Speaker 1: plus the District of Columbia and at least a hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty cities across the United States that have replaced
Speaker 1: Columbus Day over the tainted legacy of the fifteenth century explorer.
Speaker 1: Columbus was once revered as the brave navigator from Genoa, Italy,
Speaker 1: who defied credit to seek out a Western passage to India. Sure,
Speaker 1: he miscalculated the distance from Spain to India by nearly
Speaker 1: eight thousand nautical miles that's around fourteen thousand kilometers, but
Speaker 1: he stumbled onto two continents largely unknown to the Europeans
Speaker 1: in the process, and no Columbus never actually stepped foot
Speaker 1: in North America, but many European Americans still saw him
Speaker 1: as the nation's de facto discoverer. But then a new
Speaker 1: image of Columbus began to emerge. From his journals. We
Speaker 1: learned that when Columbus first met the indigenous Hyeno people
Speaker 1: of the Caribbean Islands and noted that they were peaceful
Speaker 1: and didn't have advanced weapons technology, his first thought was
Speaker 1: to enslave them. Columbus wrote, they would make good servants.
Speaker 1: With fifty men, they can all be subjugated and made
Speaker 1: to do what is required of them. Indeed, on Columbus's
Speaker 1: second voyage to the America's he rounded up one thousand,
Speaker 1: five hundred native Arowak men, women and children and held
Speaker 1: them in pens while his ships prepared to sail back
Speaker 1: to Spain. He chose five hundred to be taken to
Speaker 1: Europe and sold into slavery. Two hundred of them died
Speaker 1: on the journey, and those who remained in their homeland
Speaker 1: through a combination of forced labor in Spanish colonies and
Speaker 1: European diseases like smallpox, the native populations of the Bahamas
Speaker 1: and Hispaniola were virtually wiped out within decades of Columbus's arrival.
Speaker 1: By low estimates, there were one hundred thousand Arawak on
Speaker 1: Hispaniola in fourteen. By fifteen fourteen, only thirty two thousand remained,
Speaker 1: and by fifteen forty two there were only two hundred.
Speaker 1: Some historians claimed that up to three million Tyano died
Speaker 1: in that same time period. We spoke with Carrie Gibson,
Speaker 1: historian and author of Empires Crossroads, a History of the
Speaker 1: Caribbean from Columbus to the present day. She said Columbus
Speaker 1: didn't come over in the spirit of scientific inquiry and
Speaker 1: cultural sensitivity of First, he was mistaken in his navigation. Second,
Speaker 1: he was looking for gold and for people to enslave.
Speaker 1: When you realize that, it's very hard to still hold
Speaker 1: him up as a positive symbol, it makes a lot
Speaker 1: of sense that some people are pushing back against Columbus
Speaker 1: day The movement to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's
Speaker 1: Day started back in nineteen seventy seven at a United
Speaker 1: Nations International Conference on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations. Instead of
Speaker 1: celebrating Columbus's arrival as the foundation of the America's, participants
Speaker 1: proposed an alternative holiday that would recognize that Native people's
Speaker 1: had inhabited these lands for millennia. South Dakota ditched Columbus
Speaker 1: Day for Native Americans Day in ninete in Berkeley, California,
Speaker 1: became the first place to switch to Indigenous People's Day.
Speaker 1: In Since then, more cities and states have distanced themselves
Speaker 1: from Columbus and embraced a new holiday that, in the
Speaker 1: words of Maine's proclamation, celebrates quote the historic, cultural, and
Speaker 1: contemporary significance of the indigenous peoples of the lands that
Speaker 1: later became known as the Americas. The anti Columbus Day
Speaker 1: movement has its detractors, though some believe it's a case
Speaker 1: of political correctness run wild, while others alleged that repealing
Speaker 1: Columbus Day would be in a front to another ethnic group,
Speaker 1: Italian Americans. The National Italian American Foundation or n i
Speaker 1: a F wrote in a statement when Columbus Day was
Speaker 1: founded in nineteen thirty seven. The federal holiday provided a
Speaker 1: sense of dignity and self worth in light of the
Speaker 1: hostility and discrimination that many Italian immigrants, Italian Americans, and
Speaker 1: Catholics more broadly faced. An estimated four million Italian immigrants
Speaker 1: came to America between eighteen eighty and nineteen twenty, mostly
Speaker 1: farmers fleeing desperate poverty in their home country. Italian immigrants
Speaker 1: faced terrible discrimination and outright violence, and early Italian American
Speaker 1: civic groups latched onto the Genovesi Columbus as a symbol
Speaker 1: of pride, connecting Italians to the broader American experience. The
Speaker 1: first Columbus Day celebration was in seventeen ninety two to
Speaker 1: commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of Columbus's first voyage to
Speaker 1: America in San Francisco. Italian communities started celebrating an annual
Speaker 1: Columbus Day as early as eighteen sixty nine. Then, in
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety one, the Italian immigrant community in New Orleans
Speaker 1: was the victim of the largest mass lynching in US history.
Speaker 1: Eleven people were killed. Following this, in President Benjamin Harrison
Speaker 1: called for a general holiday the four anniversary of Columbus
Speaker 1: landing and proclaimed Columbus a pioneer of progress and enlightenment.
Speaker 1: At the urging of the Knights of Columbus. President Franklin D.
Speaker 1: Roosevelt made Columbus Day an official federal holiday in seven
Speaker 1: and the holiday has since become a day when many
Speaker 1: Italian Americans celebrate their heritage through community festivals and parades.
Speaker 1: Given the painful history that led to the founding of
Speaker 1: Columbus Day, groups like the n I a F are
Speaker 1: some of the staunchest opponents of state and national efforts
Speaker 1: to erase it from the calendar. The n I a
Speaker 1: F wrote, we believe that to repeal Columbus Day as
Speaker 1: a federal holiday, which is celebrated by over twenty million
Speaker 1: Italian Americans, only to replace it by another holiday celebrated
Speaker 1: by another ethnic group would be culturally insensitive. The group
Speaker 1: says it does not oppose in Jenous People's Day as
Speaker 1: long as held on another day beside Columbus Day. Gibson
Speaker 1: the Historian doesn't have an easy answer for solving the
Speaker 1: Columbus Day controversy, but encourages deeper reflection on the long
Speaker 1: and complicated history of the lands and people that we
Speaker 1: call American. She said, the minute Columbus arrived in Hispaniola,
Speaker 1: everything changed. We're still having discussions about how it changed,
Speaker 1: and historians are still dealing with the legacy of that
Speaker 1: initial encounter. Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of
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