Beacon Broadside

It’s
tempting to personalize the initial crimes committed by the mercenary
Christopher Columbus, no banality of evil there and easy to vilify. However, Columbus
was commissioned by the Spanish monarchy and his voyage was only the symbolic beginning
of the nightmare of modern colonialism that impoverished, enslaved, and simply
eradicated hundreds of millions of people and hundreds of ancient nations, the
results of which we still live with. It is settler colonialism, not Columbus
per se, that is celebrated. The United States was born of colonialism’s most
genocidal and exploitative twins: settler-colonialism and the Atlantic slave
trade.

Posthumous portrait of Christopher Columbus by Sebastiano del Piombo, 1519

The
nearly two centuries formation of the thirteen British North American colonies
did not disappear with the bloody war of independence that created the United
Sates. On the contrary, the continuation and expansion of settler
colonialism/genocide and plantation slavery were the primary motives for
separation. The first seventy years of the new “empire of liberty,” as Thomas
Jefferson called the U.S., was devoted to genocidal wars against the Native
agricultural nations east of the Mississippi, seizure of their lands, and
forced mass removal of the citizens of those nations to Indian Territory
(future Oklahoma). The appropriated land in the South was used for expansion of
the slave-worked planation economy, while land in the Ohio Valley and Great
Lakes area was used as the bait to entice European settlers—one-way transport,
tools, and “free” land. The Columbus myth of the right to discovery transmuted
into “manifest destiny,” and territories west of the Mississippi were taken
through war and genocide during the second half of the 1800s. This then is the
genealogy of all of us who live in the U.S. and of its institutions and its relations
with the rest of humanity (the other 94 percent of the world's population).

But,
that is not the whole story, because Native nations, through their resistance
to U.S. colonization, survived, have land bases and governments and languages
and demand the return of all lands not transferred through legitimate treaties.

I
have completed a book on this genealogy, An
Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, which will be published
by Beacon Press next year.  In it, I
trace the U.S. origin story to the Columbus myth. Origin narratives form the
vital core of a people's unifying identity and of the values that guide them.
In the U.S., the specific narrative of the founding and development of the
Anglo-American settler-state was envisaged by the Puritan settlers as a
covenant with God to take the land; that part of the origin story takes on
legal color based on the Columbus myth and the "Doctrine of
Discovery." According to the fifteenth century doctrine pronounced by the
Pope, European nations acquired title to the lands they “discovered,” and the
Indigenous inhabitants lost their natural right to that land now that the
Europeans had arrived and claimed it.

The celebrations of Columbus suggest
that from U.S. independence onward, colonial settlers saw and still see themselves
as part of a world system of colonization. “Columbia” is based on the
name Columbus (Colombo in his native Italian), rendering its Latin form,
Columbia, as the “Land of Columbus.” It was a poetic name used
referring to the United States from its founding throughout the nineteenth
century and was represented by a female persona that can be found in
sculptures, paintings, and place names, such as the national capitol, the
District of Columbia, Columbia University, and the names of dozens of towns with
many more by the name of Columbus. The 1798 hymn, "Hail, Columbia,"
was the early national anthem of the U.S., now used for the entry of the
Vice-President of the United States.

And, of course, the nearest Monday to
October 12 is an official federal holiday celebrating Columbus, thereby attempting
to validate the discredited Doctrine of Discovery. The devoted
celebration of Columbus in the United States gives food for thought since
Columbus never came near touching any piece of land or water that has ever or
is currently occupied by the United States. Arcane as it may seem, the medieval “Doctrine of Discovery” remains
the basis for federal laws still in effect that control Indigenous Peoples
lives and destinies, even their histories, maintaining a colonial hold. Most
importantly, it controls the world view and behavior of the U.S. government and
its citizens.

How about a movement to abolish Columbus
Day and bury the Doctrine of Discovery? 

Editor's Note: Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's forthcoming An Indigenous People's History of the United States (September 2014) is classic Beacon "bottom up" history. It's the third book in "ReVisioning American History," a series that questions, challenges, and ultimately changes how we think of our past. A Queer History of the United States, by veteran LGBT scholar and activist Michael Bronski was the first book in the series, followed by A Disability History of the United States by prominent disability historian Kim Nielsen.

Executive Editor Gayatri Patnaik had known of Dunbar-Ortiz's legendary past, had read her memoirs, Outlaw Woman and Red Dirt, and was aware of the author's vital personal connection to indigenous history, as well as her immense knowledge of it. She noted, "Dunbar-Ortiz writes with extraordinary clarity in this groundbreaking history…and her blog for 'Columbus Day' gives a sense of the revolutionary power you can expect from An Indigenous People's History of the United States."

About the Author

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is
an historian, university professor, co-founder of Indigenous World
Association, which lobbies the United Nations on behalf of indigenous
peoples’ rights, and author of a number of books and articles on
indigenous peoples of the Americas, most recently, Roots of Resistance: A History of Land Tenure in New Mexico. Her book An
Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States will be published by Beacon Press next year.