Keep in mind that you're allowed to care about more than one issue in this world. For example, you can work against current injustice, while also rectifying past injustice.

Also, while working to resolve important problems like human trafficking, mass shootings, and child abuse, does it make sense to continue honoring the founder of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, a genocide-level mass murderer, and passive child sex trafficker?

Finally, it's very fast to rename a holiday in a city – once the decision is made, it's basically a matter of adapting another city's resolution, and then updating an electronic calendar. So the only aspect of renaming Columbus Day that's distracting from other issues is time spent addressing opposition from those who are still misinformed on this issue. Hopefully this website helps reduce that time.

Columbus Day was only established very recently in American history (in 1934). It's not an American tradition, it's a recent mistake.

More importantly, Columbus Day was only established through political lobbying by special interests. Basically, President Franklin D. Roosevelt enacted the holiday in exchange for votes. And that "deal" was only able to happen in 1934 because very few people knew the truth about Christopher Columbus at the time.

Now that much more is known, we understand that teaching children to honor the founder of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, a genocide-level mass murderer, a passive child sex trafficker, and a man who never even set foot or eyes on this continent, makes no sense at all.

Again, Columbus Day was only established in 1934 – it's not an American tradition, it's a recent mistake. And now that that mistake is recognized by our current generation, it's time to correct it for future generations.

Columbus Day was originally created to celebrate racial equality, because in the early 1900's Italians were still considered a non-white race. That's why even the KKK was opposed to the holiday's enactment. Ironically, with what we now know about Christopher Columbus, the holiday has transformed into a symbol of racial intolerance, ethnic cleansing, slavery, and genocide. In other words, it no longer serves the purpose for which 1930's Italian-American leaders intended it.

As for pushing out Whites, keep in mind that if Columbus had discovered the North American continent (he didn't, he never set foot or even eyes on it), that would have given Spain a 10-year head start over England in exploring/settling this continent, and there wouldn't even be a United States today. And far fewer people of Northern European descent would be here now.

In other words, no matter what your perspective (racist or anti-racist), celebrating Christopher Columbus no longer makes any sense. And those who are holding on to Columbus Day for the sake of "culture" or "tradition" are now creating a holiday that directly contradicts the intention of their predecessors. More and more Italian-Americans are coming to understand this.

All races, ethnicities and cultures deserve to be honored – all have contributed to what this country is, all have made sacrifices, and all have suffered in this country at times.

However, how many have been assigned a federal holiday? The Chinese helped build much of the Transcontinental Railroad, but they weren't given a federal holiday to honor that contribution. The Japanese were held in internment/concentration camps during WWII, but their plight wasn't commemorated with a national day of recognition. Can you imagine our health care system, or our food and agriculture industries, without the contributions of Mexican Americans and other Latinos? And recent generations may not remember, but the Irish and Germans experienced discrimination during periods of immigration, just as Italians did. Yet none of these groups are recognized by federal holidays.

Sure, we enjoy St. Patrick's Day and Oktoberfest, Cinco de Mayo festivals and Chinese New Year parades. And it would be great for Italian Americans to establish a cultural heritage day to honor their significant contributions to American history. But in light of what we now know about Columbus initiating genocide, honoring Italian Americans by celebrating Columbus is similar to honoring German Americans by celebrating Adolph Hitler. Some Americans may choose to celebrate such men privately, but they're not men that all Americans should be obligated to celebrate. *Besides Italians, there is another ethnicity/race that might be said to have a federal holiday, which is African Americans who are honored with Martin Luther King Jr. Day (UPDATE: and now Juneteenth). However, most of us would agree that African Americans experienced a uniquely difficult "immigration experience" in America. And unlike Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader who stood for change that reformed the mindset of the American people, and serves as an excellent role model for all of us. Also unlike Columbus, MLK Jr. set foot on this continent.

**There's only one other ethnic group whose mass-mistreatment on this continent approximates the mistreatment of African Americans, and that's Native Americans. The difference is that Native Americans were more likely to be exterminated as externalities than bred as commodities – so there are fewer left to tell their tale. All the more reason for an Indigenous Peoples' day of remembrance.

While any decision about an Italian Heritage Day should be made by Italian Americans, there are definitely many Italians more worthy of celebration than Columbus. Here are a few names you may recognize:

1) Galileo Galilei: Risked a prison sentence in order to give the world the scientific truth that the Earth revolves around the sun. Note that Galileo's birthday is February 15, the day after Valentine's Day. And Saint Valentine was from Rome, the capital of Italy. How about an Italian heritage week? Isn't Italian culture more appropriately associated with love and knowledge, than greed and genocide?

2) Amerigo Vespucci: Our entire country and continent are actually already named after this Italian (some would consider that an honor already). Amerigo was the first European to understand (unlike Columbus) that North and South America were actual continents, and not part of Asia/India.

What? Galileo and Vespucci weren't Americans? Neither was Columbus. Columbus was a pillager of America.

3) Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci: Italian immigrant (lived in New York) now recognized as the true inventor of the telephone. It wasn't Alexander Graham Bell (nor Steve Jobs, as some today believe).

4) Again, we do already have Valentine's Day on February 14, and Saint Valentine was Italian. And again, Galileo Galilei (the Italian father of modern science who risked a prison sentence to give the world scientific truth) has a birthday on February 15th. Please see #1 above.
 

If Congress enacted a federal holiday to celebrate Adolph Hitler for his contribution to American culture of conceiving the Volkswagen Beetle, and simply gave you the option of not honoring him by instead going to work on that day that everyone else takes off, would you be okay with that?

You may not identify with Hitler's Holocaust, but just imagine some similar scenario in which your family, friends, community, and culture were systematically exterminated for centuries. How would you feel about your new community celebrating the person who initiated their extermination? Would you be passive to that celebration? Or would you try to explain to your community the other things that Hitler did, and ask them to rename the holiday?

Other Europeans visited this continent over 300 years before Christopher Columbus was born. There was nothing new about Columbus's ability to sail a boat. And have you ever wondered why we refer to Native Americans as "Indians"? It's because according to Christopher Columbus's navigational miscalculations (he calculated the world to be much smaller than it actually is, and to be shaped like a pear), he insisted that he was near India. So he called the inhabitants "Indians". But he was actually on an island in the Bahamas. Keep in mind that India is on the complete opposite site of the world from the Bahamas. You literally cannot be any more off-course navigationally than being on the opposite side of the world from where you think you are. In short, celebrating Columbus for being a great navigator doesn't make any sense at all.

P.S. The cartographer who determined that America is not India was an Italian from Florence: Amerigo Vespucci. Our entire country and continent are named after that Italian, every day. Is that not an honor? It's true that he wasn't the first European to cross the Atlantic, nor was he an American, but neither was Columbus either of those things.

As history professor Jeffrey Burton Russell explains, "no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the third century B.C. onward believed that the earth was flat." Greek scholars had mathematically proved the world to be round well over a thousand years before Columbus was born, and it was accepted as very common knowledge by the 1400's.

As for physically proving the world to be round by sailing around it, Columbus might have done that if he had reached India. But he wasn't even close to India. Regardless, he had no interest in such an accomplishment. His interests were finding gold and selling slaves.

*BTW, it was in 1522 that eighteen members of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan's crew were the first to circumnavigate the globe.

There's a huge difference between sporadic tribal warfare and systematic mass extermination.

There are first hand written accounts from horrified witnesses who were shocked by Columbus's brutal behavior. According to these accounts, his actions were by no means the way "things worked" back then. Catholic priest Bartolomé de las Casas wrote "Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it."

The standards of human decency that oppose mass murder, mass torture, and mass rape are not new. And they were far from being legal behavior even in the 1490's. That's why Columbus was eventually arrested, sent back to Europe in chains, and put in prison for what he'd been doing in the Caribbean. And even though he eventually engineered a "pardon" for his crimes, he was forbidden from governing anywhere, ever again.

Yes, Columbus Day celebrates a man who committed crimes on a scale that would today be called crimes against humanity. And even though that term didn't exist in his day, he was still perceived by witnesses then in the way that we perceive Hitler now. That's why he was not celebrated then, and we shouldn't be celebrating him now.

"Stop trying to change history. You'll confuse our grandchildren."

If only our grandparents had said that in the 1930's, we wouldn't be dealing with this issue today. In fact, many children nowadays find it extremely confusing that we (Americans living in the "land of the free") have a holiday to celebrate a slave trader and mass murderer who never even set foot or eyes on this continent.

Our grandparents most likely didn't know the truth about Columbus in the 1930's, so the holiday's enactment seemed like a fine idea at that time. But many children today (either through updated education or the Internet) do know the truth. And for many of them, cognitive dissonance arises when they're told to keep honoring Christopher Columbus.

The most confusing scenario at this point would be for our grandchildren to understand that our generation knew the truth, but chose to protect the lie. Right now is actually an opportunity to teach our children and grandchildren an important lesson: that it's okay to correct mistakes of the past. We won't be able to offer them the same excuse that our parents offered us: that we didn't know.

Renaming Columbus Day is not re-writing history. Rather it's correcting a recent (1934) mistake that was made based on previously mis-written history. And renaming Columbus Day will not erase history – Christopher Columbus will always have his place in history books... alongside Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin.

Despite his use as a mascot during America's war for independence from Britain (chosen as a mascot because he was not British), Christopher Columbus remained a rather unknown person to most people until a fiction writer in the 1820's fabricated heroic stories about him as a scheme to sell books.

That storybook image of a heroic Italian discovering America actually proved useful in reducing discrimination against Italian immigrants in the late 1800's and early 1900's – yes, the myth temporarily did some good. Noting that initial benefit, lobbying by Italian special interests then persuaded President Roosevelt to enact the Columbus Day holiday in 1937 (in exchange for votes). Since very few people knew the truth about Columbus at that time, the holiday seemed like a fine idea to most.

But times have changed drastically. With more attention placed on Christopher Columbus by a national holiday, it's now well known that he was not at all a person to be proud of, nor someone we should be teaching children to honor. Rather, he symbolizes the beginning of one of the two darkest chapters in American history. And with the truth about Columbus now widely accessible, continuing to celebrate such a symbol of cultural intolerance and racist violence isn't going to benefit future Italian Americans, nor any Americans. Columbus Day's ship has definitely sailed.

It's great that Italian-Americans were able to briefly use Columbus Day to reduce discrimation in America 100 years ago. But with what's now known, the holiday has become something that directly contradicts what our predecessors intended. And with what's now known, we see that this day has always been Indigenous Peoples Day. It's a day that has rippled through Indigenous lives in devastating ways for centuries. And it's time to give the day back to those to whom it rightfully belongs. Doing so can be an honor.

"Indigenous People should get their own day"

That's getting it backwards. Given what we now know, Columbus's 1492 landing in the Bahamas has almost nothing to do with Italian-American history. And saying that "Indigenous People deserve to have their own day" is manipulative.

Given what we now know, Columbus's 1492 landing instead has everything to do with Native American history. It was an event that has rippled through Native American lives in devastating ways for centuries.

In short, the second Monday in October has always been Indigenous Peoples' Day. Those who have suffered genocide, mass exploitation, mass rape, and oppression for centuries since Columbus's landing are the ones for whom this day has true significance.

We all understand that Italian Americans suffered discrimination during a brief period of American history, and that celebrating Columbus Day temporarily provided benefit in reducing that discrimination, which is great. But discrimination against Italians is no longer a significant issue in America, and any additional benefit from Columbus Day, along with Columbus's myth, is now gone. So it's time to give the day back to those to whom it belongs. Doing so can be an honor.

Having both Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day on the same day would be like having simultaneous holidays for Adolph Hitler and Holocaust Remembrance. It would remain offensive to many on both sides.

The actual priority here is to rename (i.e. replace) Columbus Day – to stop celebrating the man who initiated Indigenous exploitation and genocide.

While establishing an Italian Heritage Day is a great idea, it must not be on the day that marks the beginning of centuries of Native American oppression. And future generations of Italian-Americans deserve better than to be associated with the mass-murdering founder of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, a man who worked for Spain and had nothing to do with Italian-American heritage.

Note that we do already have Valentine's Day on February 14, and Saint Valentine was Italian. Coincidentally, Galileo Galilei (the Italian father of modern science who risked a prison sentence to give the world scientific truth) has a birthday on February 15th. How about an Italian Heritage Week? Isn't Italian culture more appropriately associated with love and knowledge, than greed and genocide?

Also, let's not forget that our entire continent and country are named after an Italian: Amerigo Vespucci (the cartographer who discovered the truth that this continent is not India). Some would consider having a country named after you an honor.

What, Saint Valentine, Galileo and Vespucci weren't Americans? Neither was Columbus. Columbus was a pillager of America and the first Americans.

Establishing an "Italian Heritage Day" on the second Monday of October would be like establishing a German Heritage Day on the day Hitler invaded Poland or started exterminating Jews.

Fixing a mistake with another mistake is not a solution. And it would remain offensive to many on both sides.

While establishing an Italian Heritage Day is a great idea, it must not be on the second Monday of October. That day is Indigenous People's day.

Also, deviating at all from a straight rename would conflict with the 1977 UN Proposal and set a flawed example for other cities.

That's what the city of Columbus, Ohio initially did – they simply abolished Columbus Day, and city employees there go to work that day.

However, in many other places, people want to continue having a day off from work. So the holiday needs to be called something on city calendars.

Although Columbus's 1492 landing in the Bahamas has nothing to do with Italian-American history, we now see that it has everything to do with Indigenous American history – it's a day that has rippled through Native American lives in devastating ways for centuries. And we now see that the second Monday in October always been Indigenous Peoples Day.

So while it's great that Italian-Americans were temporarily able to use "Columbus Day" to reduce discrimination against their community in the early 1900's, those who are still holding on to the holiday for the sake of "culture"or "tradition" are now supporting something that has become a direct contradiction of what their predecessors intended.

Fortunately, discrimination against Italian-Americans is no longer a significant issue in America. So it's time to give the second Monday in October back to those to whom it rightfully belongs. Because it is, and always has been, Indigenous People's day. Giving the day back can be an honor.

*The city of Columbus, Ohio later renamed the second Monday in October to Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Possibly the worst reason for continuing any custom, tradition or behavior is "because those before us did it." Other behaviors that have been part of human culture include child sacrifice, cannibalism, forced child marriage, female genital mutilation, stoning, slavery, segregation, etc. Furthermore, with what we now know about Christopher Columbus, what's now being celebrated on "Columbus Day" is not what our predecessors intended.

Yes, there's a part of each of us that desires the comfort of conformity and keeping the status quo. But there's also a greater part of you, one that desires to shed comfort's constraints and act in congruence with who you really are.

Much of what's right about our world today is owed to those ancestors who did that – those who questioned assumptions, and who listened to what the greater part of them knew. Imagine if none had ever challenged slavery, or arranged marriage, or human sacrifice. If none had ever re-defined culture before us, imagine the burden and cognitive dissonance we'd be facing now. Well lucky for us, they did question, and they did change. Paying it forward is our obligation to future generations now.

You define your culture.

Humans have been on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years, and our pre-human ancestors were evolving for millions of years before that. Yet in just the last 100 years, what we've been calling "advanced" culture has brought our species to the brink of extinction.

Maybe it's time we start questioning some of the ethnocentric and false assumptions about advanced culture that we grew up with... especially any that have been getting used to justify genocide of those deemed "not advanced".

In his biography of Adolf Hitler, Pulitzer Prize winner John Toland describes how Hitler was inspired by America's Indian reservation system, and "often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination – by starvation and uneven combat – of the red savages." America's genocidal policies regarding native people were well-studied by the Nazis, because, as The New Yorker put it, "America's knack for maintaining an air of robust innocence in the wake of mass death struck Hitler as an example to be emulated."

Strategies of ethnic cleansing used against Native Americans have included starvation, brutal death marches and massacres, as well as eradication of culture through boarding schools and religious suppression, forced land dispossession and economic conversion, and other cultural assimilation. Watch this short documentary. So the genocide of Native Americans and their cultures certainly didn't end with Christopher Columbus. However, Columbus is the major symbol of that genocide's beginning. It was a genocide that, like every other, was based on self-serving assumptions of superiority that we now know to be absurd.

Renaming Columbus Day doesn't change history – history can't be changed. Rather, renaming is a conscientious side effect of remembering true history. Such remembering can be uncomfortable, but as the saying goes: we must know our true history if we're to avoid the mistakes of our past. And we must stop glorifying the type of violent figures in our past that we don't want to be part of our future. We're all on a single family tree of life on this planet, and it's time for all to see that those who disregard the wellbeing of others in their search for personal wealth or power are eventually going to be remembered like Columbus: as lost a-holes.

For the same reason that there isn't a Hitler Day, there shouldn't be a Columbus Day.

In the 100+ cities where Columbus Day has been renamed, the renames were done through a vote of City Council. That's because general voting on this issue is not appropriate. Given what's now known about Christopher Columbus, this is a moral issue in need of leadership, not majority/mob rule. Christopher Columbus was the founder of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, he committed genocide for gold, he eventually went to prison for his crimes, and he never set foot or even eyes on the North American continent.

Would we take a vote on whether to condone mass murder, human trafficking, or child abuse? Because given what we know today, that's what Columbus Day now represents.

Furthermore, you cannot systematically exterminate the majority of people who would vote a certain way, then take a vote on whether or not to respect those people, and call that a democratic process. It's not.

Finally, Columbus Day was not enacted by vote – it was enacted by misinformed leaders. And when new facts come to light that make a new direction morally obvious, leaders who are aware of those facts must do the right thing regardless of their still misinformed constituents telling them to do otherwise. That's the point of leadership in a democracy. Without that kind of leadership, democracy at times would become little more than tyranny by misinformed majority – which is unacceptable for moral decisions.

You already know that Christopher Columbus never set foot on the North American continent, whereas other Europeans did so centuries before he was born.

More importantly, you already understand that nobody should be called "the discoverer" of a place that already had millions of people living in it.

You're also aware that Columbus's so-called bravery was based mostly on his bad math and lust for gold, and that the reason Native Americans have been called "Indians" for centuries is because Columbus was so lost that he thought the Caribbean islands he "discovered" were near India.

You've also already discovered how Christopher Columbus initiated genocide, mass rape, torture, human burnings and dismemberings, and countless other horrific crimes against Caribbean people on a scale that would today be prosecuted as crimes against humanity.

You know that Columbus was the founder of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, that he allowed the prostituting of children, that he let infants be fed to dogs, and that his gruesome abuse of Indigenous people eventually led to their mass suicides.

And you know that all this was not just a matter of "the way things were" in 1492. You've uncovered the historical fact that Columbus was eventually arrested, sent back to Spain in chains (because he worked for Spain, not Italy), put in prison for his crimes in the Caribbean, and never allowed to govern anywhere ever again.

And you already understand that if Columbus had "discovered" the North American continent, Spain would have started colonizing here long before England, and there wouldn't even be a United States today.

You've also learned that Columbus was essentially an unknown name until a fiction writer in the 1830's fabricated heroic stories about him as a scheme to sell books, and a U.S. President in the 1930's enacted a holiday for him as a scheme to buy votes.

So you already understand that renaming Columbus Day is not a re-writing of history, but rather correcting a mistake that was made based on mis-written history. And you understand why numerous cities and universities have already completed the rename — why even the city of Columbus, Ohio has done away with Columbus Day, and why even the District of Columbia (Washington D.C.) and Columbia University have adopted Indigenous Peoples' Day instead. You understand why even many Italian Americans are increasingly supporting this name change. Yes, Columbus Day may have served a purpose in reducing discrimination against Italian immigrants during a period of American history. But discrimination against Italians is no longer a significant issue in America. And with the truth about Christopher Columbus now widely accessible, you see why it's no longer appropriate to be teaching children to honor such a man. You see why celebrating a symbol of intolerance and violence isn't going to benefit future Italian Americans, nor any Americans.

Cognitive dissonance is the mental turmoil that results from holding two conflicting beliefs, values, or attitudes. For example, when children are taught to treat others kindly while also being told to honor and admire a mass murderer, torturer, rapist, and racist, many of those children will experience cognitive dissonance.

Bartolomé de las Casas was a Catholic priest who immigrated to Haiti during the time of Columbus. Much of what we now know about Columbus's reign of terror comes from his writings.

Read some of his accounts of live burnings, dismemberings, infanticide, genocide, and more.

Many people have visited this website before you, and some may even be on it now, so please don't declare yourself "the discoverer" of this site. By "discovered" we simply mean that you've gained personal knowledge of this site's existence.
Congratulations, and welcome!

P.S. Although you can't own this site or the people on it, you are welcome to copy what we've done and make your own site even better.

Yes, Christopher Columbus did some good, including:

• He introduced potatoes, tomatoes, avocados, corn, peanuts, tobacco and pumpkin to Europe. And he introduced apples, bananas, oranges, coffee, grapes, rice, smallpox, malaria and wheat to America. Leif Erikson didn't do that circa 1000. And if Columbus hadn't done it in the 1490's, it may have been several years, perhaps decades, before someone else transported those items across the Atlantic.

Like Columbus, Adolph Hitler did some good, including:

• He supported the most powerful anti-smoking campaign in the world during the 1930s and early 1940s, which was far ahead of its time. He was also plant-based (like his contemporaries Einstein and Gandhi) and advocated a plant-based diet. Given that a recent (2018) University of Oxford study called such diet "the single biggest way to reduce our environmental impact" Hitler's plan to ban slaughterhouses would have been a godsend for our planet and health.

The point is: All people have the potential of doing both good AND bad, meaning even the most evil among us are also capable of doing some good. Which side we lean towards is ultimately a personal choice. But those who choose to commit crimes against humanity, like Hitler and Columbus, shouldn't get holidays named after them. That's why there isn't a Hitler Day, and there shouldn't be a Columbus Day.

For no reason other than gold, Christopher Columbus also became a murder, torturer, rapist, pedophile, and initiator of the largest genocide our planet has ever seen. When he failed to find gold, he became the founder of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

WATCH: "Happy Taino Genocide Day"

"The cruel policy initiated by Columbus... resulted in complete genocide."
– Pulitzer Prize-winning, Harvard Historian Samuel Eliot Morison

"Within 50 years of 1492, the Greater Antilles and Bahamas saw their population reduced from an estimated million people to about 500."
– Historian Matthew Dennis

"(In 1508) there were 60,000 people living on this island (Haiti)... So from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it."
– Bartolomé de las Casas, a Spanish priest

"They forced their way into native settlements, slaughtering everyone they found there, including small children, old men, pregnant women, and even women who had just given birth. They hacked them to pieces, slicing open their bellies with their swords..."
– Bartolomé de las Casas
 

"As soon as the 1493 expedition got to the Caribbean, before it even reached Haiti, Columbus was rewarding his lieutenants with native women to rape. On Haiti, sex slaves were one more perquisite that the Spaniards enjoyed. Columbus wrote to a friend in 1500, "A hundred castellanoes [a Spanish coin] are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten [years old] are now in demand.""
– From "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen

"... I captured a very beautiful Carib [girl], whom [Columbus] gave to me, and with whom... I conceived desire to take pleasure. I wanted to put my desire into execution but she did not want it... I took a rope and thrashed her well, for which she raised such unheard of screams that you would not have believed your ears... we came to an agreement in such manner that I can tell you that she seemed to have been brought up in a school of [whores]."
– From "American Holocaust" by David E. Stannard

"Bobadilla [the governor who arrested Columbus and sent him back to Spain in chains] reported to Spain that Columbus regularly used torture and mutilation to govern Hispaniola. The 48-page report, found in 2006 in the national archive in the Spanish city of Simancas, contains testimonies from 23 people, including both enemies and supporters of Columbus, about the treatment of colonial subjects by Columbus and his brothers during his seven-year rule. According to the report, Columbus once punished a man found guilty of stealing corn by having his ears and nose cut off and then selling him into slavery... Testimony recorded in the report stated that Columbus congratulated his brother Bartolomeo on "defending the family" when the latter ordered a woman paraded naked through the streets and then had her tongue cut out for suggesting that Columbus was of lowly birth."

From writings of Bartolomé de las Casas:

"They made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment, their [life] would leave them."

"They made some low wide gallows on which the hanged victim's feet almost touched the ground, stringing up their victims in lots... then set burning wood at their feet and thus burned them alive."



"They tortured him with the strappado, put burning tallow on his belly, pinned both his legs to poles with iron hoops and his neck with another and then, with two men holding his hands, proceeded to burn the soles of his feet. From time to time, the commander would look in and repeat that they would torture him to death slowly unless he produced more Gold."

From writings of Bartolomé de las Casas:

"I testify that I saw with my own eyes Spaniards cutting off the hands, noses, and ears of local people, both men and women, simply for the fun of it, and that this happened time and again in various places through the region. On several occasions I also saw them set dogs on the people, many being torn to pieces in this fashion, and they also burned down houses and even whole settlements, too numerous to count."

"With still others, all those they wanted to capture alive, they cut off their hands and hung them round the victim's neck, saying, "Go now, carry the message," meaning: Take the news to the Indians who have fled to the mountains."

"Yet another member of [Columbus'] party galloped about cutting the legs off all the children as they lay sprawling on the ground."



From "A People's History of the United States":

"[Columbus's men] thought nothing of knifing Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices of them to test the sharpness of their blades... two of these so-called Christians met two Indian boys one day, each carrying a parrot; they took the parrots and for fun beheaded the boys."
 

From writings of Bartolomé de las Casas:

"Indeed they invented so many new methods of murder that it would be quite impossible to set them all down on paper."

"They forced their way into native settlements, slaughtering everyone they found there, including small children, old men, pregnant women, and even women who had just given birth. They hacked them to pieces, slicing open their bellies with their swords..."

"They took infants from their mothers' breasts, snatching them by the legs and pitching them headfirst against the crags or snatched them by the arms and threw them into the rivers, roaring with laughter..."

"After a day or two had gone by, several victims surfaced, soaked from head to foot in the blood of their fellows beneath whose bodies they had sheltered and, with tears in their eyes, pleaded for their lives, but the Spaniards showed them no mercy nor any compassion, and no sooner did they crawl out from under the pile of corpses than they were butchered. The Spanish commander gave orders that the leading citizens, who numbered over a hundred and were roped together, were to be tied to stakes set in the ground and burned alive."

"One of his officers was responsible for the indiscriminate slaughter of many locals, hanging some, burning others alive, and throwing yet others to wild dogs, sometimes sawing off their hands and feet, sometimes pulling out their tongues or hacking off their heads. Even though the locals never raised a finger against the Spaniards, [Columbus] knowingly allowed this spate of atrocities to continue unchecked, directed as it was to terrorizing the local people into doing his bidding and into bringing him gifts of Gold or other precious objects."

"(In 1508) there were 60,000 people living on this island (Haiti)... So from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it."

From modern historians:

"Within 50 years of 1492, the Greater Antilles and Bahamas saw their population reduced from an estimated million people to about 500."
– Historian Matthew Dennis

"The cruel policy initiated by Columbus... resulted in complete genocide."
– Pulitzer Prize-winning, Harvard Historian Samuel Eliot Morison
 

From "A People's History of the United States"

• "In the year 1495, [Columbus's men] went on a great slave raid, rounded up fifteen hundred Arawak men, women, and children, put them in pens guarded by Spaniards⁽⁺⁾ and dogs, then picked the five hundred best specimens to load onto ships. Of those five hundred, two hundred died en route. The rest arrived alive in Spain and were put up for sale..."

• "In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where [Columbus] and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death."

Although Christopher Columbus was Italian, he sailed for Spain — not Italy. And if he had ever seen or set foot on the North American continent (he didn't), there most likely wouldn't have ever been a United States for Italians — or any Europeans — to come to.

From "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by University of Vermont history professor Dr. James Loewen:

As soon as the 1493 expedition got to the Caribbean, before it even reached Haiti, Columbus was rewarding his lieutenants with native women to rape. On Haiti, sex slaves were one more perquisite that [they] enjoyed. Columbus wrote to a friend in 1500, "A hundred castellanoes [a Spanish coin] are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls; those from nine to ten [years old] are now in demand."

A Columbus shipmate, Miguel Cuneo, wrote that "When our [ships]... were to leave for Spain, we gathered... 1600 male and female "Indians" [and] let it be known... that... [any of the sailors] who wanted to take ... them could do so." Cuneo got a teenage "Caribbean girl as a gift from Columbus" and said "I wanted to put my desire into execution but she [resisted]... I took a rope and thrashed her well, for which she raised such unheard of screams that you would not have believed your ears... [but in the end] I can tell you that she seemed to have been brought up in a school of [whores]." In other words, he thrashed the teenage girl that Columbus had given him mercilessly into subsmission and then raped her.

From writings of Bartolomé de las Casas:

"A Spaniard who was out hunting deer or rabbits realized that his dogs were hungry and, not finding anything they could hunt, took a little boy from his mother, cut his arms and legs into chunks with his knife and distributed them among his dogs."

"One woman, who was indisposed at the time and so not able to make good her escape, determined that the dogs should not tear her to pieces as they had done her neighbors and, taking a rope, and tying her one-year-old child to her leg, hanged herself from a beam. Yet she was not in time to prevent the dogs from ripping the infant to pieces."

Columbus's primary interest was gold, but he discovered that Caribbean "Indians" were as good as gold because they could be enslaved to collect gold, or they could be sold for gold.

From "A People's History of the United States":
"In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where [Columbus] and his men imagined huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death."

From a letter written by Columbus:
"It is possible... to sell all the slaves which it is possible to sell... Here there are so many of these slaves... that although they are living things they are as good as gold..."

From "Columbus: The Four Voyages"
"The Indians... plunged off cliffs, they poisoned themselves with roots, and they starved themselves to death. Oppressed by the impossible requirement to deliver tributes of gold, the Indians were no longer able to tend their fields, or care for their sick, children, and elderly. They had given up and committed mass suicide to avoid being killed or captured..." Show more

From "A People's History of the United States"
"Among the Arawaks (Haiti natives), mass suicides began... Infants were killed to "save" them from the Spaniards. In two years, through murder, mutilation, or suicide, half of the two hundred fifty thousand Indians on Haiti were dead... the Indians were taken as slave labor on huge estates... 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."

There are first hand written accounts from horrified witnesses who were shocked by Columbus's brutal behavior. According to these accounts, his actions were by no means the way "things worked" back then. Catholic priest Bartolomé de las Casas wrote "Who in future generations will believe this? I myself writing it as a knowledgeable eyewitness can hardly believe it."

Standards of human decency have never included mass murder, rape, torture, infanticide, dismembering or burning peaceful people alive. There's a good reason why Columbus was eventually arrested, sent back to Europe in chains, and put in prison for what he'd been doing in the Caribbean. And even though he eventually engineered a "pardon" for his crimes, he was forbidden from governing anywhere ever again.

"But if it weren't for Columbus, we Europeans wouldn't be here."

Actually, it's just the opposite:

If Columbus had "discovered" the North American continent in 1492 (he didn't – he never even saw or set foot on it), the ethnic composition here today would probably look more like Mexico (where Spaniards quickly "mixed" with native populations) or Haiti (where native populations were quickly decimated by Spaniards and then completely replaced with African slaves).

Remember that Columbus sailed for Spain, not Italy. And even without the head start that a 1492 Columbus landing would have given Spain, the United States still eventually had to fight the Spanish-American War (to remove Spain's influence from the Caribbean) AND the Mexican-American War (to remove Spanish influence from California/Texas). Look at this map of what was happening even without the head start that a Columbus "discovery" would have provided Spain (which was claiming ownership of the entire Western Hemisphere).

In other words, if Christopher Columbus had "discovered" the North American continent in 1492, there wouldn't be a "United States" today. There would be a "New Spain" or "North Mexico" or something other than the country we now have. And many (likely most) current Americans of Northern European descent wouldn't even be here.

So the "we wouldn't be here if it weren't for Columbus" argument for observing Columbus Day really doesn't make any sense.

An actual example of re-writing history can be seen in the way American education has long manipulated our view of the genocide that took place against the people who once lived where we live now. Renaming Columbus Day is part of correcting that re-writing of history.

In order for knowledge of history to serve us well, it must be true history. This is especially true for a country with its roots in genocide and slavery. We must understand the need for reconcilation in order to find redemption.

Doing so is strength. Not doing so is unwise.

*The Indigenous of this continent took good care of it for thousands of years before Europeans began fleeing the problems of their continent. At some point, when we're ready, learning more about the nearly-erased knowledge of this land's original inhabitants may also be wise.

Europeans were not immigrating to America in the 1800's because life in Europe was wonderful. They were fleeing crop failures, job shortages, rising taxes, famine, political and religious persecution, and so on.

Columbus's primary interest was gold. Although he never found much of that, he unfortunately discovered that Caribbean "Indians" were as good as gold because they could be captured and sold as slaves – for gold: With that discovery, Columbus became the founder of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. He also discovered that the "Indians" could be enslaved to collect gold. Here's how that business worked:

If your city/school still has Columbus Day on its calendar, then you'll want to rename Columbus Day. In that case, your renaming document (e.g. resolution or ordinance) should specify that Indigenous Peoples' Day recognition is "instead of" or "as a replacement for" any official recognition of Columbus Day. Without that or similar language, the question may later arise as to whether Columbus Day remains on official calendars/communications. But given what Christopher Columbus is now known to represent, the removal of Columbus Day is just as important as the addition of Indigenous Peoples' Day.

However, if your city/school has already removed Columbus Day from its calendar, as many have, then you'll be asking your community decision makers to simply adopt/recognize Indigenous Peoples' Day. In that case, including the above wording about replacing Columbus Day is less critical. But it is still a good idea to include it, in order to set a good example for other cities that still have Columbus Day.

*Note about "observing" the day:
Many state and local governments, like many businesses, no longer "observe" Columbus Day (meaning they no longer take the day off). Whether your city/school is renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day, or if it no longer has Columbus Day on its calendar and is merely adopting/recognizing Indigenous Peoples' Day, that aspect of the day does not need to change.

Indigenous Peoples' Day is a holiday commemorating the people who lived in what is now known as the Americas prior to European colonization. It's celebrated across the United States on the second Monday of October, the same day that's still federally referred to as "Columbus Day".

Given what we now know, Columbus's 1492 landing in the Caribbean has very little relevance to Italian-American heritage, and actually jeopardized U.S. history. On the other hand, given what we now know, Columbus's October landing has profound significance in Indigenous-American history. It was an event that has rippled through Indigenous-American lives in devastating ways for over 500 years.

In short, the second Monday in October has always been Indigenous Peoples' Day. Those who have suffered genocide, mass exploitation, oppression, and cultural suppression for centuries since Columbus's landing are the ones for whom the day has true significance.

It's great that the day could temporarily be used to reduce discrimination against Italian-Americans during a brief period of U.S. history. But with that issue resolved, and with any potential benefit to future generations of Italian-Americans now completely dissolved by the truth, it's time to give the day back to those to whom it belongs. Doing so can be an honor.

Finding the email addresses for your local city council members should be easy – because their job is to represent you, so they are supposed to be easy to contact. Just do a web search for "City Council of [Your City]".

Alternatively, your local governing body might be called "Common Council", "City Commission", "Town Council", "Town Board", etc.

The reason Columbus attempted a reverse route to India was because his navigational calculations told him that the Earth was much smaller than it actually is, and that it was shaped like a pear. But his calculations were very wrong. Lucky for him and his crew, they stumbled on islands full of human gold in the Caribbean. But dumb luck while searching for gold is not the same as bravery.

Until his death, Columbus insisted that Haiti and nearby islands were part of India. That's why he called the region "the Indies" and its inhabitants "Indians". But in fact, he was on the opposite side of the world from India.

This is a template that supporters might send to your City Council members. Ask them to customize/personalize it.

Dear Councilmember [Last Name],

My name is [Your Name], and I'm a resident of [Your City].

I'm writing to express my strong support for repealing Columbus Day in [City Name], and adopting Indigenous Peoples' Day on the second Monday of October.

Indigenous people lived in what is now [City Name] since time immemorial, yet are still not adequately recognized as its first peoples. Christopher Columbus, on the other hand, is a major symbol of the beginning of Indigenous exploitation, slavery, rape, torture and cultural genocide in the Americas. He should no longer be celebrated and codified by our city.

Adopting Indigenous Peoples' Day in [City Name] is a step toward healing and reconciliation that is so critically needed in today's larger movement for racial equity and healing in this country. This is a civil rights issue that is long overdue to be corrected.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Sincerely,
[Your name]


*Text credit: dignidad.org
 

The resources at the bottom of this page, along with the timeline material and template website, are intended to help you inform community leaders and members about the truth behind Columbus Day. Yes, you will notice that many people are averse to discovering that their childhood beliefs are bogus. But as philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said, "All truth passes through three stages. First, it's ridiculed. Second, it's vehemently opposed. Third, it's accepted as being self-evident."

So yes, you may feel ridiculed/opposed initially. But look at it this way: The same has been experienced by people throughout history who've stood for transformative ideas, progress, and making the world a better place. That's now you. Thanks to you, future generations won't have to live with the cognitive dissonance of honoring Columbus.

It's ironic that the KKK opposed the enactment of Columbus Day (because Italians were at one time considered a non-white race), and that the United States wouldn't even exist if Columbus had "discovered" this continent for Spain, yet some people now see renaming Columbus Day as a threat to their racial/cultural/national identity. However, fighting racism with racist reasoning doesn't make much sense.

One strategy you might use when encountering such identity insecurities is this: Ignore it and keep going. Don't get bogged down bickering with people still lost in conditioned beliefs about who they (and we all) are. The best thing you can do for them, for you, and for generations to come, is to just keep taking steps in alignment with your own heart.

Some people will presume to speak for all Italian Americans by saying that renaming Columbus Day is an insult to Italian Americans. However, it's increasingly the case that many Italian Americans (especially younger generations) don't want to be represented by Columbus any more than they want to be represented by Mussolini.

You might remind such people that no other ethnic group in America has an observed holiday. Yes, there's St. Patricks Day for the Irish, Oktoberfest for Germans, Cinco de Mayo for Hispanics, and the Chinese New Year. But none of those holidays are observed holidays.

As for unobserved holidays, St. Valentine was from Italy, and Valentine's Day is one of the most celebrated unobserved holidays we have in America. Coincidentally, the day after Valentine's Day is Galileo Galilei's birthday (he's the Italian father of modern science who risked a prison sentence to give the world scientific truth – that's a true hero). How about establishing an Italian Heritage week? Aren't love and knowledge more appropriate symbols of Italian heritage than greed and genocide?

Also remind such people that our entire continent and country are already named after an Italian: Amerigo Vespucci. That's a huge honor! And Italian history is full of other true greats like Leonardo da Vinci, etc, etc – there's absolutely no need fabricate fake stories for the sake of Italian pride, there are plenty of real ones.

Other suggestions for when confronted by people who think they're defending Italian pride:
1) Ask them to look closely at what Columbus did to other ethnic groups on this continent.
2) Explain to them that anyone is free to continue honoring Christopher Columbus, just as they're free to honor Adolph Hitler, but such honoring should not be on all our calendars.
3) Point out that the longer this change is resisted, and the more we all learn about Columbus, the more shameful Columbus Day becomes.
4) Encourage them to think of the many Italian Americans who don't want to be represented by Columbus, and of the even greater number who won't want to be in the future.
5) Remind them that our ancestors would not have chosen to celebrate Christopher Columbus if they had known the truth about him, and that we will not be able to offer the same excuse to our children that our parents did to us: that we didn't know.

*Correction: There is one other ethnic group that might be said to have an observed holiday, which is African Americans who are honored with Martin Luther King Jr. Day (UPDATE: and now Juneteenth as well). However, most of us would agree that African Americans experienced a uniquely difficult "immigration" experience in America. And unlike Christopher Columbus, Martin Luther King Jr serves as an excellent role model for all Americans. Also unlike Columbus, MLK Jr. actually set foot on this continent.

**There's only one other ethnic group whose mass mistreatment on this continent approximates the mistreatment of African Americans, and that's Native Americans. The difference is that Native Americans were more likely to be slaughtered as externalities than bred as commodities – so there are fewer left to tell their tale.
 

This objection completely contradicts the concept of "acting locally", which over a hundred conscientious cities and states have already done. The truth is that all major social changes typically start at local levels. Abolition of slavery, women's right to vote, the right to interracial marriage, gay marriage, and just about all other legal reversals based on morality were initiated at city/state levels.

If any politician tells you that renaming Columbus Day must be done at the federal level, either they don't understand American politics, or they don't want you to understand.

As stated on ConstitutionCenter.org, the website of The National Constitution Center: "Congress enacted federal holidays to catch up to states" and "Among the reasons cited for the Columbus Day federal holiday was that it was being observed in 40 states at the time." However, based on updated information about Christopher Columbus, less than half of U.S. states are now observing Columbus Day.

While it would be great if Congress implements this rename nationwide at some point, your city/state/school doesn't have to wait for the federal government. You can make this happen where you live/work/study based on updated information, as many others have already done.

If any politician tells you that renaming Columbus Day must be done at the federal level, either they don't understand American politics, or they don't want you to understand. Change starts locally. Abolition of slavery, women's right to vote, the right to interracial marriage, gay marriage, and just about all other legal reversals based on morality were initiated at city and state levels.

As stated on the website of The National Constitution Center: "Among the reasons cited for the Columbus Day federal holiday was that it was being observed in 40 states at the time." However, based on updated information about Christopher Columbus, less than half of U.S. states are now observing Columbus Day.

While it would be great if Congress would eventually implement this rename nationwide, your city/state/school doesn't have to wait for the federal government. You can make this happen where you live/study based on updated information, as many others have already done.

Some people will suggest that your city keep Columbus Day, and just create a separate "Indigenous Peoples Day" on another day. Don't do it. Having both Columbus Day and IPD is like having holidays for both Adolph Hitler and Holocaust Remembrance. The priority here is to rename Columbus Day – to stop celebrating genocide – so don't settle for anything less.

Other people might suggest renaming Columbus Day to "Italian Heritage Day" and enacting Indigenous Peoples Day on that same day. This is even more ridiculous. This would be like celebrating German Heritage on the day Hitler invaded Poland / started exterminating Jews. Don't fall for these attempted manipulations disguised as compromise.

If someone wants to create an Italian Heritage Day, Galileo Day, or Leonardo da Vinci Day on another day, that's great. But it must not be on the day that marks the beginning of Indigenous genocide. Any celebration for anyone other than Indigenous People on the day associated with Columbus's landing makes no sense.

Note that we do already have Valentine's Day on February 14th, and St. Valentine was Italian. Coincidentally, Galileo's birthday is February 15th, and he's a true hero (he risked a prison sentence to bring the world scientific truth). How about an Italian Heritage Week? Also, let's not forget that our entire continent and country are named after an Italian: Amerigo Vespucci (the cartographer who understood that this continent is not India). What, Galileo, Da Vinci, Saint Valentine and Vespucci weren't Americans? Neither was Columbus.

Some people will suggest renaming Columbus Day to "Native American day" which initially sounds good because many of us are still more accustomed to that term.

However, don't do it:

• "Indigenous Peoples' Day" aligns with:

1. A 1977 proposal by a delegation of Indigenous Nations to the United Nations-sponsored International Conference on Discrimination Against Indigenous Populations in the Americas.
2. Resolution #11-57 of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians, representing 59 Tribes, to "Support to Change Columbus Day (2nd Monday of October) to Indigenous Peoples' Day."

• The name "Indigenous Peoples' Day" also aligns with what 200+ other cities/counties/states/schools have already done. Remaining consistent will make for a more efficient transition when this rename goes to the federal level.

• Indigenous people lived on this continent long before it was called "America" by Europeans, so there's inherent conflict in the term "Native American".

• The word "native" is often used to mean simply "born in a place" (e.g. everyone born in Colorado can say they're a Colorado native). There's no such confusion with the word Indigenous.

• More about Indigenous Peoples' Day

*In the early days of renaming Columbus Day, some cities adopted names that honored their region's Indigenous tribe. However, for reasons #1 and 2 above, that's no longer recommended.

When dealing with local/city politicians, don't be surprised if your initial communications aren't met with a lot of enthusiasm. Renaming holidays isn't something they're likely to have experience with, and elected officials in smaller cities are more likely to have concerns about how their constituents/friends might view such a proposal. But once you explain the facts, show them why many cities have already implemented his important change, and perhaps direct them to the documents that other cities have used to implement the change – in other words: once they see that this is the right thing to do, that it's easy to do, and that it costs nothing to do – apathy will turn to action. Avoid being pushy (it always takes some time for beliefs/feelings to change), but do be persistent. With truth on your side, simply staying the course at whatever speed feels right for you is the best strategy.

Some things to keep in mind when drafting your Resolution:

1. You want a Resolution, NOT a Proclamation: A "resolution" or ordinance/code typically indicates permanent policy change, whereas a "proclamation" is a ceremonial document issued yearly (and only valid for that one year). Therefore, getting a Resolution passed in your city/school is the priority. In general, don't waste time on proclamations.

2. Second Monday in/of October: Because the actual date of the holiday changes yearly, your Resolution should include language specifying that "Indigenous Peoples' Day shall be the second Monday in October of every year" or "[Our city] shall recognize every second Monday of October each year as Indigenous Peoples' Day" or similar. The Resolution should NOT specify an exact date in October.

3. Replacing Columbus Day: Your Resolution should specify that Indigenous Peoples' Day recognition is "instead of" or "as a replacement for" any official recognition of Columbus Day. Without that or similar language, the question may later arise as to whether Columbus Day remains on city calendars/communications. Given what Christopher Columbus is now known to represent, the removal of Columbus Day is just as important as the adoption of Indigenous Peoples' Day. Listen to: Reno | Austin
*This wording is less critical if your city has already removed Columbus Day from its calendar, but it's still recommended.

4. Christopher Columbus explanations: It's optional as to whether or not your Resolution makes other mentions of Columbus Day and/or Christopher Columbus. Some communities choose to sanitize their document of "negativity" for the sake of not offending any members of the current generation who still associate the day with Italian heritage. Others put more weight on the importance of explaining the reason for this change, especially for the sake of future generations. Listen to: Dallas 1 | Dallas 2

5. Avoid "Native American Day:" Some people may suggest renaming Columbus Day to "Native American day" which initially sounds good because we're still accustomed to that term. However, don't do it.

6. Avoid alternative days: Some people may appear generous in suggesting that Indigenous people should get their own day or month. Don't do that either.

7. "Italian Heritage Day": Some people may suggest adopting Indigenous Peoples' Day, and dropping Columbus Day, but adding an "Italian Heritage Day" on the same date. Bad idea.

Keep things simple with the resolution generator.

By simply bringing this issue to the attention of your City Council and community, you're already helping to raise awareness. Your words may not seem to have much impact at first, or there may be initial resistance to your ideas because they contradict existing beliefs. But as Founding Father Thomas Paine once wrote, "The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark." You're planting seeds of awareness in people's minds, and that is already success – because some will definitely grow. So don't worry about appearances of initial non-action.

This Columbus Day issue actually presents an excellent opportunity to educate local communities about our country's real history, including every local community's own Indigenous history (because wherever you go in this country, Indigenous People were once there). So there's no need for frustration or discouragement, because any seeming failure is just one more opportunity to raise more awareness of something that our society truly needs more awareness of – our real history.

This is a template you might use for initial email contact with your City Council members. Adapt/modify to make it personal.

Dear Councilman/Councilwoman [insert last name],

My name is [insert your name], and I'm a resident of [your city].

The purpose of this email is to ask that you and City Council pass a Resolution to rename the holiday currently known as "Columbus Day" to "Indigenous Peoples' Day" on all city calendars. In so doing, we'd be joining such cities as Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and over a hundred others that have conscientiously decided that such renaming is the right thing to do.

This issue is especially relevant to [our city], as we have a very long Native American history here. This area was [local tribe] territory for over [#] years.

Despite what most of us were taught as children (about Columbus "discovering" a continent that already had millions of people on it), what he actually "discovered" where Caribbean Islands. According to his navigational calculations, he believed he was near India, which is why we still refer to Native Americans as "Indians". Upon his so-called discovery of those inhabited islands, Columbus immediately initiated what would today be prosecuted as crimes against humanity, including mass enslavement and genocide. I've provided some references below.

While Columbus never landed on the North American continent (as Leif Erikson actually did centuries before him), he does still symbolize the beginning of what would most accurately be described as the "American Holocaust." And to continue celebrating the man who initiated mass extermination of Native Americans is shameful.

To be clear, renaming "Columbus Day" to "Indigenous Peoples' Day" is not rewriting history. It's correcting a mistake that was made based on mis-written history. Yes, it can be difficult to acknowledge that something we were taught as children (and something we've accepted as our culture) is mostly a lie. But this is a lie whose time has come to be rectified. It's not appropriate that we be teaching our children to honor what Christopher Columbus represents.

Even the city of Columbus, Ohio has done away with Columbus Day, as has Washington D.C. (District of Columbia). Most cities are renaming to "Indigenous Peoples' Day" through a vote of their City Councils, and I hope that we can do the same here in [your city].

I'm planning to attend the next council meeting to present this request during the public comment period as well. If there's some other process I should follow, please let me know.

Thank you,
[your name]
 

This is a template you might use for an initial presentation to your community's council/board/etc. Edit to make it personal, and to fit with whether your city/school/etc still recognizes Columbus Day. Also, be sure to check the time allowance for public comments at your community's meetings, and practice reading out loud to make sure you're within that limit.

Good morning Mayor and Councilmembers,

My name is [your name], I'm a resident of [your city], and I'm here today to ask that the City Council vote to rename the holiday currently known as Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day on all city calendars. In so doing, we'd be joining such cities as Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and over a hundred others that have conscientiously decided that such renaming is the right thing to do.

This would be especially appropriate for [our city], as there's a very long Native American history here. This region was [tribe] territory for over [#] years... [add a bit of history if available]

As for Columbus Day, this renaming should not be considered an affront to Italian Americans. Columbus Day began in the 1930's as a result of special interest lobbying, and as a way to reduce discrimination against Italian immigrants. It did serve a purpose. However, discrimination against Italian Americans is no longer a significant issue, and many other ethnic groups have experienced periods of discrimination during immigration without being assigned observed holidays.

But most importantly, we now know that Christopher Columbus was not a person to be proud of. Despite what many of us were taught as children, about the hero Columbus discovering a continent that already had millions of people on it, it's now well known that other Europeans had sailed here centuries before Columbus was born, and that actually, Columbus never set foot on, or even saw, this continent. Rather, it was inhabited Caribbean islands that he quote "discovered," whereupon he initiated what today would be considered crimes against humanity. This included mass enslavement, mass rape, sex trafficking of children, and genocide. He also became the founder of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade.

I won't go into details about the atrocities committed by Columbus and his men, since there's abundant and undisputed documentation online. But although Columbus never landed on this continent, he does symbolize the beginning of what would most accurately be described as the American Holocaust.

So renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day is not a re-writing of history. It's a correction of mis-written and suppressed history. I agree that it can be difficult to acknowledge that something we were taught as children, and something we've come to accept as part of our culture, is mostly a lie. But this is a lie whose time has come to be rectified. We should not be disrespecting the original inhabitants of these lands by celebrating their genocide. And we should not be teaching children to honor a man who was willing to completely disregard the well-being of others in his search for personal wealth. Kids today need a new type of role model, and new definitions of success, if they're to create a better world for their kids.

Renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day is a small step in the right direction. But it's a step that our community of [your city] could be truly proud of.

I'll conclude by pointing out that, while this may appear to be a federal issue, it's really not. Columbus Day began at city and state levels, and that's where it must be undone. Colorado was the first state to celebrate Columbus Day, and Denver in 2016 adopted Indigenous Peoples' Day. In 2019, even the city of Washington DC, the District of Columbia, celebrated Indigenous Peoples Day instead. Over 100 cities have done the same, they did so through a vote of their City Councils, and I sincerely hope that you can help us do the same here in [your city].

Thank you for listening.
 

This is a template you might use for an initial presentation to your community's council/board/etc. Edit to make it personal, and to fit with whether your city/school/etc still recognizes Columbus Day. Also, be sure to check the time allowance for public comments at your community's meetings, and practice reading out loud to make sure you're within that limit.

Good morning City Councilmembers and guests,

My name is [your name], I live in [your city], and I'm here to ask that you place on your agenda, and eventually vote for, observing Indigenous Peoples' Day instead of Columbus Day.

I'd like to quickly share just 4 reasons for making this important name change.

First, Columbus didn't discover America. Millions of people already lived here when he left Europe. Moreover, he never even set foot on this continent. In fact, he never even saw it. And even if we were to continue disregarding the human inhabitants who were here before us, other Europeans – vikings – are now well-known to have landed in North America hundreds of years before Columbus was born.

Second, wherever Columbus did set foot, he spread disease, mass rape, slavery, and genocide. His primary motivation was gold, and he unleashed unrestrained violence wherever he went searching for it. Columbus was quite simply a genocidal egomaniac. And honoring him is similar to honoring Hitler or Stalin. And we must not make the mistake of thinking that his behavior was normal in 1492. There's a good reason why Columbus was eventually arrested, transported back to Europe in chains, and put in prison for what he did in the Caribbean.

Third, the area where we live was inhabited by the [tribe] people for more than [#] years. And they were good stewards of the land for those [x] years. This makes it completely fitting that we recognize their important contribution to our city's history. And its diversity. Celebrating a day that symbolizes Indigenous genocide is completely incongruent with our community's values.

And fourth, perhaps most important, citizens look to their elected leaders not just for civic leadership, but also for moral leadership. This is not an issue of Democrat versus Republican, or Italian-American versus Native-American. It's an issue of not continuing to honor antiquated and inappropriate behavior that we condemn when we see it today.

More than 200 U.S. cities, counties, states, and universities have already done the right thing. Please take a stand on this very important issue, and set an example for the people of [your city], by renaming Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day here as well.

Thank you
 

This is a template you might email to your local City Council members. Adapt/modify to make it personal.

Dear Council Members,

I'm writing to ask that you pass a Resolution to rename the holiday currently known as "Columbus Day" to "Indigenous Peoples' Day" on all city calendars. In doing so, [our city] would join approximately 200 other cities and universities that have conscientiously decided that such renaming is the right thing to do. Nearby cities that have made this important change include [insert text here].

This issue is especially relevant to [our city], as we have a very long Native American history here. This area was [local tribe] territory for over [#] years.

Although it is now well known that Columbus never landed on the North American continent, he does still symbolize the beginning of what would most accurately be described as the "American Holocaust." It's no longer appropriate to be teaching children to honor what Christopher Columbus now represents. It's not appropriate that we still be honoring it.

Renaming "Columbus Day" is not rewriting history, it's rather correcting a mistake that was made based on mis-written history. Now that the truth is known, the mistake needs to be rectified. To learn more about why and how other cities are implementing this change, I suggest you visit swww.RenameColumbusDay.org

Even the city of Columbus, Ohio has done away with Columbus Day, as has Washington D.C. (District of Columbia). Most cities are renaming to "Indigenous Peoples' Day" through a vote of their City Councils, and I hope that you can do the same in [our city].

Thank you,
[your name]
 

Given what we now know, saying that "Indigenous People deserve to have their own day" on a "non-Columbus Day" is flawed and manipulative. Given what we now know, Columbus's landing in the Bahamas in 1492 has very, very little to do with Italian American history. Rather, that day in 1492 has everything to do with Native American history. It was an event that has rippled through Native American lives in devastating ways for centuries.

In short, the second Monday in October has always been Indigenous Peoples' Day. Those who have suffered genocide, mass exploitation, mass rape, and oppression for centuries as a result of Columbus's landing are the only ones for whom the day has real meaning.

We all understand that Italian Americans suffered discrimination during a period of American history, and that celebrating Columbus Day provided benefit in reducing that discrimination and suffering, which is great. But any additional benefit, along with Columbus's myth, is now gone. And it's time to give the day back to those to whom it rightfully belongs. Doing so can be an honor.

In his book "Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography" (ISBN 9780385420532) Pulitzer-Prize winning biographer John Toland explains that Hitler was inspired by America's Indian reservation system and "often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination – by starvation and uneven combat – of the red savages..."

Mass grave for slaughtered Native Americans (including 200 women and children):


More:
NewYorker.com
St. John's Law Review

*Although there continue to be deniers of both the Jewish and Native American genocides, the evidence that both took place is overwhelming.

This site has a main folder and three subfolders: "images", "timeline" and "audio". Be sure to download each file to the correct folder:

/   (main folder)
index.html
logo.png
logofb.png
logonotext.png
logo-source.svg   (for modifying logo with Inkscape)
menu.png
timeline.html
yoursite.html

/images/   (subfolder)
bison1870s.jpg
chiefjoseph1877.jpg
creativecommons.png
indianland.jpg
lascasas-babies.jpg
lascasas-burning.jpg
lascasas-dogs.jpg
lascasas-hands.jpg
quote-indians.png
quote-italians.png
quote-italians-highlight.png
quote-italians-highlight-blur.png
thomaspaine.jpg
undelegation.jpg
whichoneiscolumbus.jpg
woundedknee.jpg

/timeline/   (subfolder)
You can leave this folder empty for now. If you choose to keep an online log, this is where you'll put audio clips, screenshots, and other material collected during your campaign.

/audio/   (subfolder)
This site includes about 200 audio clips from various city council meetings, totalling about 400 megabytes. If you're creating a site for a small city/school, you may want to simply link to those files on our server. Instructions for doing so are in the HTML source, but PLEASE ASK PERMISSION BEFORE DOING SO, and keep in mind that there's no guarantee our website will remain online, or that the links won't change. The safer option is to download all the audios.

Austin-h0m07,Austin-h0m15,Austin-h0m17,Austin-h0m20,Austin-h0m22,Baltimore-h0m00, Baltimore-h0m04,Baltimore-h0m12,Baltimore-h0m15,Baltimore-h0m19,Baltimore-h0m25,Baltimore-h0m27, Baltimore-h0m33,Baltimore-h0m35,Baltimore-h0m39,Baltimore-h0m47,Baltimore-h0m51,Baltimore-h0m56, Boston-h0m00,Boston-h0m04,CambridgeA-h1m36,CambridgeA-h1m39,CambridgeA-h1m41,CambridgeB-h0m01, CambridgeB-h0m12,CambridgeB-h0m19,CambridgeB-h0m31,CambridgeB-h0m35,CambridgeB-h0m36, CambridgeB-h0m37,CambridgeB-h0m38,CambridgeB-h0m48,CambridgeB-h0m57,CambridgeB-h1m01, CambridgeB-h1m07,CambridgeB-h1m11,Cincinnati-h0m06,Cincinnati-h0m08,Cincinnati-h0m10, Cincinnati-h0m12,Cincinnati-h0m13,ColoradoSpring-h0m22,ColoradoSpring-h0m26,ColoradoSpring-h0m28, ColoradoSpring-h0m31,ColoradoSprings-h0m34,ColoradoSprings-h0m38,DallasPt1-h0m02,DallasPt1-h0m05, DallasPt1-h0m09,DallasPt1-h0m12,DallasPt1-h0m17,DallasPt1-h0m20,DallasPt1-h0m23,DallasPt1-h0m25, DallasPt2-h0m04,DallasPt2-h0m06,DallasPt2-h0m08,DallasPt2-h0m19,DallasPt2-h0m25,DallasPt2-h0m37, Denver-h0m12,Denver-h0m24,Denver-h0m49,Eugene-h0m05,Eugene-h0m10,Eugene-h0m28,Eugene-h0m30, Eugene-h0m32,Eugene-h0m37,Eugene-h0m43,Eugene-h0m50,Eugene-h0m59,Eugene-h0m01,Eugene-h0m07, Eugene-h0m08,Eugene-h0m24,Flagstaff-h0m03,Flagstaff-h0m05,Flagstaff-h0m09,Flagstaff-h0m28, Flagstaff-h0m32,Houston-h0m12,Houston-h0m16,Houston-h0m21,Houston-h0m26,Houston-h0m29, Houston-h0m33,Houston-h0m36,KansasCity-h0m09,LosAngeles-h1m33,LosAngeles-h1m34,LosAngeles-h1m35, LosAngeles-h1m36,LosAngeles-h1m38,LosAngeles-h1m39,LosAngeles-h1m41,LosAngeles-h1m42,LosAngeles-h1m43, LosAngeles-h1m53,LosAngeles-h2m14,LosAngeles-h2m34,Madison-h0m02,Madison-h0m06,Madison-h0m07, Minneapolis-h0m03,Minneapolis-h0m05,Minneapolis-h0m09,Minneapolis-h0m19,Minneapolis-h0m24, Minneapolis-h0m25,Phoenix-h0m35,Phoenix-h0m36,Phoenix-h0m40,Phoenix-h0m42,Phoenix-h0m50, Phoenix-h0m52,Phoenix-h0m59,Phoenix-h1m09,Phoenix-h1m11,Phoenix-h1m16,Phoenix-h1m18,Portland-h0m21, Portland-h0m29,Portland-h0m33,Portland-h0m36,Portland-h0m41,Portland-h0m43,Portland-h0m46, Portland-h0m47,Portland-h0m53,Portland-h0m55,Portland-h1m00,Portland-h1m04,Portland-h1m07, Portland-h1m12,Portland-h1m16,Princeton-h0m51,Princeton-h0m53,Reno-h1m31,SanFrancisco-h0m16, SanFrancisco-h0m17,SanLuisObispo-h0m09,SanLuisObispo-h0m12,Seattle-h0m03,Seattle-h0m05, Seattle-h0m08,Seattle-h0m18,Seattle-h0m23,Seattle-h0m24,Seattle-h0m26,Seattle-h0m30,Seattle-h0m40, SouthLakeTahoe-h4m05,SouthLakeTahoe-h4m12,SouthLakeTahoe-h4m13,SouthLakeTahoe-h4m15,SouthLakeTahoe-h4m19, Spokane-h0m15,Spokane-h0m28,Spokane-h0m39,Spokane-h0m43,Spokane-h0m46,Spokane-h0m51,Spokane-h0m54, Spokane-h0m58,Spokane-h1m03,Spokane-h1m08,Spokane-h1m11,Spokane-h1m20,Spokane-h1m21,Spokane-h1m23, Spokane-h1m25,Spokane-h1m26,Spokane-h1m30,Spokane-h1m33,Spokane-h1m34,Spokane-h1m41,Spokane-h1m45, Spokane-h1m47,Spokane-h1m51,Spokane-h1m54,Spokane-h2m01,Spokane-h2m04,Spokane-h2m06,Spokane-h2m12, Spokane-h2m18,Spokane-h2m19,Spokane-h2m22,Spokane-h2m27,Spokane-h2m37,Spokane-h2m40,Spokane-h2m42, Spokane-h2m43,Spokane-h2m45,Tacoma-h0m22,Tacoma-h0m28,Tacoma-h0m44,Tacoma-h0m46,Tacoma-h0m54, Tacoma-h0m58,WashingtonDC-h2m28,WashingtonDC-h2m32,WashingtonDC-h2m33

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