A few readers might have noticed the lack of posts on Wampum yesterday, but I assume most of you, for good reason if one looks at recent history, wrote it off to life taking precedence over blog. The truth is, however, that for me, like millions of other indigenous people through the Western Hemisphere, Columbus Day is not a holiday, but a day of mourning, and so I spent it as such.
When the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria made their way to a small island in the Caribbean, there were upwards of 50 million people in North and South America; some demographers, such as Dobyns, put the number closer to 90 million. The statistic is somewhat fluid, as there was no Census Bureau back in 1492, and thus researchers much extrapolate from existing data to hypothesize demographics. Archaeologists and ethnohistorians use a variety of resources, from European accounts, such as Verrazano's description of a multitude of villages along the Long Island Sound so that the night sky glowed as in daylight, to counting the postholes of longhouses to estimate village size. There were numerous cities of thousands, even tens of thousands, rivalling the largest European cities at the time. CNN today touts the innovative spirit of the Pueblo, who in the 14th century sustained cities of 5000 or more with imported corn and lumber.
Within two centuries of Columbus' initial journey, the indigenous population of the "New World" was reduced by 90 percent. The majority died from exposure to European dual-host pathogens, also known as childhood diseases, such as smallpox, measles and even the seemingly innocuous chicken pox. The rest were victims of marauding pirates and mercenaries, better known in the European lexicon as "explorers". Hundreds of thousands were kidnapped and/or impressed into slavery.
My relatives, New England and Canadian Abenakis, numbered over 40,000 at the time of Contact. By the end of the last Colonial war in 1724, only a few hundred remained (from whom, fortunately, now tens of thousands are descended), thus experiencing a mortality rate from European colonization of over 90 percent.
Thus, this is not a day of celebration. While I appreciate that many Italian-Americans have attempted to shift the focus from Columbus' actions to his ethnicity, and hence, Italian pride, it is a black day in the history of millions. Two of my favorite writers, Colorado Luis and Luz Paz address the issues confronting not only Indians and Italians, but Chicanos (what we here in the Northeast call "metis") in an area, Denver, heavily populated by all three groups.
This year has been a particularly disheartening one, coming off the bigoted, yet generally accepted, campaign of Governator-elect Schwartzenegger. Add to that even more misdeeds by the BIA. The cherry, sadly, is that many in the Democratic party, including one frontrunner for the nomination, don't "get it" that Indian = Casino = Crime is not as inherently offensive as Ghettopoly. Either buy a clue or go straight back home. Do not pass Go, do not collect mongo campaign contributions.
Posted by MB Williams at October 14, 2003 07:31 PM | TrackBack