WEBVTT - Why Are Some Americans Cancelling Columbus Day?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio, Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum Here for more than five hundred

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<v Speaker 1>years after stepping ashore on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola,

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<v Speaker 1>Christopher Columbus is a divisive figure here in the so

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<v Speaker 1>called New World. He opened to European explorers and colonists

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<v Speaker 1>on the second Monday in October. As many Americans celebrate

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<v Speaker 1>Columbus Day with a fall cookout or big sales at

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<v Speaker 1>the mall, others will observe Indigenous People's Day, a holiday

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<v Speaker 1>born of protest against a conflicting historical icon. In May

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<v Speaker 1>of twenty nineteen, Vermont became the most recent state to

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<v Speaker 1>officially replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's Day. Vermont joined

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<v Speaker 1>North Carolina, Alaska, South Dakota, Oregon, Minnesota, Maine, and New Mexico,

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<v Speaker 1>plus the District of Columbia and at least a hundred

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<v Speaker 1>and thirty cities across the United States that have replaced

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<v Speaker 1>Columbus Day over the tainted legacy of the fifteenth century explorer.

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<v Speaker 1>Columbus was once revered as the brave navigator from Genoa, Italy,

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<v Speaker 1>who defied credit to seek out a Western passage to India. Sure,

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<v Speaker 1>he miscalculated the distance from Spain to India by nearly

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<v Speaker 1>eight thousand nautical miles that's around fourteen thousand kilometers, but

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<v Speaker 1>he stumbled onto two continents largely unknown to the Europeans

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<v Speaker 1>in the process, and no Columbus never actually stepped foot

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<v Speaker 1>in North America, but many European Americans still saw him

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<v Speaker 1>as the nation's de facto discoverer. But then a new

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<v Speaker 1>image of Columbus began to emerge. From his journals. We

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<v Speaker 1>learned that when Columbus first met the indigenous Hyeno people

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<v Speaker 1>of the Caribbean Islands and noted that they were peaceful

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<v Speaker 1>and didn't have advanced weapons technology, his first thought was

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<v Speaker 1>to enslave them. Columbus wrote, they would make good servants.

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<v Speaker 1>With fifty men, they can all be subjugated and made

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<v Speaker 1>to do what is required of them. Indeed, on Columbus's

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<v Speaker 1>second voyage to the America's he rounded up one thousand,

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<v Speaker 1>five hundred native Arowak men, women and children and held

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<v Speaker 1>them in pens while his ships prepared to sail back

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<v Speaker 1>to Spain. He chose five hundred to be taken to

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<v Speaker 1>Europe and sold into slavery. Two hundred of them died

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<v Speaker 1>on the journey, and those who remained in their homeland

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<v Speaker 1>through a combination of forced labor in Spanish colonies and

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<v Speaker 1>European diseases like smallpox, the native populations of the Bahamas

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<v Speaker 1>and Hispaniola were virtually wiped out within decades of Columbus's arrival.

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<v Speaker 1>By low estimates, there were one hundred thousand Arawak on

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<v Speaker 1>Hispaniola in fourteen. By fifteen fourteen, only thirty two thousand remained,

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<v Speaker 1>and by fifteen forty two there were only two hundred.

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<v Speaker 1>Some historians claimed that up to three million Tyano died

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<v Speaker 1>in that same time period. We spoke with Carrie Gibson,

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<v Speaker 1>historian and author of Empires Crossroads, a History of the

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<v Speaker 1>Caribbean from Columbus to the present day. She said Columbus

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<v Speaker 1>didn't come over in the spirit of scientific inquiry and

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<v Speaker 1>cultural sensitivity of First, he was mistaken in his navigation. Second,

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<v Speaker 1>he was looking for gold and for people to enslave.

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<v Speaker 1>When you realize that, it's very hard to still hold

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<v Speaker 1>him up as a positive symbol, it makes a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of sense that some people are pushing back against Columbus

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<v Speaker 1>day The movement to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People's

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<v Speaker 1>Day started back in nineteen seventy seven at a United

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<v Speaker 1>Nations International Conference on Discrimination against Indigenous Populations. Instead of

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<v Speaker 1>celebrating Columbus's arrival as the foundation of the America's, participants

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<v Speaker 1>proposed an alternative holiday that would recognize that Native people's

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<v Speaker 1>had inhabited these lands for millennia. South Dakota ditched Columbus

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<v Speaker 1>Day for Native Americans Day in ninete in Berkeley, California,

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<v Speaker 1>became the first place to switch to Indigenous People's Day.

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<v Speaker 1>In Since then, more cities and states have distanced themselves

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<v Speaker 1>from Columbus and embraced a new holiday that, in the

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<v Speaker 1>words of Maine's proclamation, celebrates quote the historic, cultural, and

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<v Speaker 1>contemporary significance of the indigenous peoples of the lands that

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<v Speaker 1>later became known as the Americas. The anti Columbus Day

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<v Speaker 1>movement has its detractors, though some believe it's a case

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<v Speaker 1>of political correctness run wild, while others alleged that repealing

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<v Speaker 1>Columbus Day would be in a front to another ethnic group,

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<v Speaker 1>Italian Americans. The National Italian American Foundation or n i

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<v Speaker 1>a F wrote in a statement when Columbus Day was

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<v Speaker 1>founded in nineteen thirty seven. The federal holiday provided a

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<v Speaker 1>sense of dignity and self worth in light of the

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<v Speaker 1>hostility and discrimination that many Italian immigrants, Italian Americans, and

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<v Speaker 1>Catholics more broadly faced. An estimated four million Italian immigrants

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<v Speaker 1>came to America between eighteen eighty and nineteen twenty, mostly

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<v Speaker 1>farmers fleeing desperate poverty in their home country. Italian immigrants

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<v Speaker 1>faced terrible discrimination and outright violence, and early Italian American

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<v Speaker 1>civic groups latched onto the Genovesi Columbus as a symbol

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<v Speaker 1>of pride, connecting Italians to the broader American experience. The

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<v Speaker 1>first Columbus Day celebration was in seventeen ninety two to

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<v Speaker 1>commemorate the three hundredth anniversary of Columbus's first voyage to

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<v Speaker 1>America in San Francisco. Italian communities started celebrating an annual

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<v Speaker 1>Columbus Day as early as eighteen sixty nine. Then, in

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen ninety one, the Italian immigrant community in New Orleans

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<v Speaker 1>was the victim of the largest mass lynching in US history.

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<v Speaker 1>Eleven people were killed. Following this, in President Benjamin Harrison

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<v Speaker 1>called for a general holiday the four anniversary of Columbus

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<v Speaker 1>landing and proclaimed Columbus a pioneer of progress and enlightenment.

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<v Speaker 1>At the urging of the Knights of Columbus. President Franklin D.

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<v Speaker 1>Roosevelt made Columbus Day an official federal holiday in seven

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<v Speaker 1>and the holiday has since become a day when many

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<v Speaker 1>Italian Americans celebrate their heritage through community festivals and parades.

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<v Speaker 1>Given the painful history that led to the founding of

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<v Speaker 1>Columbus Day, groups like the n I a F are

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<v Speaker 1>some of the staunchest opponents of state and national efforts

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<v Speaker 1>to erase it from the calendar. The n I a

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<v Speaker 1>F wrote, we believe that to repeal Columbus Day as

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<v Speaker 1>a federal holiday, which is celebrated by over twenty million

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<v Speaker 1>Italian Americans, only to replace it by another holiday celebrated

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<v Speaker 1>by another ethnic group would be culturally insensitive. The group

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<v Speaker 1>says it does not oppose in Jenous People's Day as

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<v Speaker 1>long as held on another day beside Columbus Day. Gibson

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<v Speaker 1>the Historian doesn't have an easy answer for solving the

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<v Speaker 1>Columbus Day controversy, but encourages deeper reflection on the long

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<v Speaker 1>and complicated history of the lands and people that we

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<v Speaker 1>call American. She said, the minute Columbus arrived in Hispaniola,

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<v Speaker 1>everything changed. We're still having discussions about how it changed,

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<v Speaker 1>and historians are still dealing with the legacy of that

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<v Speaker 1>initial encounter. Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and

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<v Speaker 1>produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is a production of

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<v Speaker 1>I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. For more on this

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