Happy Indigenous Peoples Day, October 9. I'm proud that Maine abolished the old name, Columbus Day. I'm dismayed that Maine's Governor won't support more sovereignty for our indigenous citizens. Despite all odds, Native people have survived. I think we have much to learn, much to acknowledge.

 

When I was in my 20s, I landed a job as editor and publisher of the Wabanaki Alliance, a newspaper serving the tribes in Maine. I was happy to be hired, being a non-Indian, Euro-American guy. I did have a journalism background.

 

And I had a lot to learn. On the Penobscot Nation reservation, I said to a friend, I see everyone's working...on Columbus Day? "Who was Columbus," he replied, and I got the point. Why would any Native person celebrate a creep like Columbus? Why would any of us celebrate a man who raped and killed indigenous people, who was motivated by greed and lust for gold?

 

The answer is that we should never have idolized this scoundrel, and shame on us for perpetuating the myth that he "discovered America." Seriously? If a Native American traveled to Britain in 1492, would they be credited with discovering that island?

 

We grew up fed a lot of hype about how America came to be. Dates to memorize, stereotypes to absorb, the mocking of Native American culture through mascots and infuriating phrases like "Indian giver." The deceit was all on the the side of white men.

 

In cleaning out some old boxes, I came across a 1990s Scholastic publication called "A Picture Book of Christopher Columbus." It makes him out to be a nice kid who grew up wanting to go to sea, who as an adult finally persuaded Spanish royalty to give him ships and men to find a passage to India.

 

He wound up in the Caribbean, landed on an inhabited island and claimed it for Spain: San Salvador. What gave him any justification to do that? He called the Native people Indians. Sounds like was pretty confused. Years later he still insisted he had found the Indies.

 

The book says nothing about Columbus' vicious and brutal attacks on the people he encountered.

 

Columbus was about colonization, since he didn't find the gold he sought. Colonization translated into genocide against Native people, just as it did with the Pilgrims and other European settlers, appropriating a country that did not belong to them. But the English and other European nations, such as France and Holland, claimed parts of America anyway, branding the rightful inhabitants as savages, burning their villages.

 

Remember manifest destiny? It's a racist rationalization for removing (killing) Native Americans so white people could have their land. We made lots of treaties with Indians; we broke most of them.

 

Today, we still have Columbia University, named after the "explorer," and Columbus Circle with a statue of the Italian-born man known previously as Cristoforo Colombo.

 

Canada still has British Columbia, South American has the nation of Columbia. We have nations right here in Maine: The Penobscot, the Passamaquoddy, the Maliseet, the Mi'kmaq. These Indigenous nations deserve our support and respect, and they have a legal right to it. We should honor that.

 

For centuries we've mistreated and abused Native people. I leave you with this statement from a Mi'kmaq woman who served on the Wabanaki Alliance board of directors: "I am human being first. An Indian second."