(Photo Credit: Readthehook.com)
Indian Country Today Media Network is reporting that many people are finding alternatives to celebrating what has increasingly become a controversial holiday in the United States – Columbus Day. The author writes:
“South Dakota calls it Native American Day, while in Berkeley it’s known as Indigenous People’s Day—though the latter celebrated this year’s version last weekend, on October 5.
Either way, the goal is to deflect attention from what has been known as Columbus Day since 1937, and marks the anniversary of the day that Christopher Columbus arrived in a world that was new to him. It may or may not catch on nationwide, and the Columbus Day holiday may or may not be abolished someday. But the alternative celebrations serve as an educational tool to get the message out that what happened back then is not what it seemed. Although only Berkeley and South Dakota have officially swapped out indigenous celebrations for Columbus Day, such commemorations are taking place all across what is known as the United States, as TimeandDate.com points out.”
The Oatmeal.com pulled together a list of why Columbus should not be celebrated in the form of a comic strip, which has gone viral. The list includes mass murder, engaging in child prostitution and being at the forefront of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Instead, he offers up Bartolome de la Casas as an alternative.
What’s your alternative? Lets us know in the comments section below.
Read more of this post at the Indian Country Today Media Network.
This post was written by Nsenga K. Burton, Ph.D., founder & editor-in-chief of the award-winning news site The Burton Wire. Follow her on Twitter @Ntellectual.
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