Why we should be celebrating an Indigenous Day
Should our nation celebrate Columbus Day? As a Native American, I say no way.
Christopher Columbus never set foot on what became the United States.
And the Caribbean islands where the Spanish did make landfall suffered terribly. They enslaved the native people. Killing them in the name of God; they sometimes set dogs on them to tear them apart, and raped and murdered women.
Acknowledging how Columbus and other colonizers brutalized and decimated the New World’s people, 13 states and 131 cities have stopped commemorating him and started to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
This new holiday spotlights and honors the contributions America’s least-known minority has made to the mosaic that is the United States.
Today about 2% of the U.S. population is Native American. But according to a recent survey by the Reclaiming Native Truth organization, 40% of the rest believe Native Americans no longer exist.
The same survey found Americans hold dual ideas about Natives; for example that they live in abject poverty but also are “flush with casino money,” or care about the environment but live on trashed reservations.
Teachers and parents in focus groups found school curriculum covering Native Americans is inaccurate, and that Natives are underrepresented. That’s because you don’t see us.
Only 22% of Natives live in federally recognized reservations and nations, where they are little seen by most Americans. Most live among the general population, residing unnoticed in cities, suburbs, towns, and rural and farming areas.
We are invisible and come to mind only on Columbus Day and at Thanksgiving, even though our rich legacy of inventions, discoveries, values, customs and language is everywhere.
Many of the United States are named for us. Millions of Americans live in towns, cities and counties — even on streets bearing our names. Every day you see rivers and mountains and lakes and other geographical features named for us.
You eat our ancient foods — popcorn, anyone? — walk in our footwear, play soccer and our other sports, practice our arts and crafts, and follow our health practices and social customs.
Many of our words have become part of your language.
But you don’t see us. You don’t know us.
We need an Indigenous Day to remind us at home, at school, at work, at community events — that America’s First People are here now, just as you are.
That we dress like you, donning traditional clothing only on special occasions. That we also talk like you. We work like you. We even look like you.
Our skin color includes all tones from “white” to “black” and all the shades of brown. Our eye color ranges from gray, green and blue to brown, and our hair from light brown with dark blond, through copper-red to black.
William Penn described my people, the Lenape, as being “as fair as Europeans but with a tan.”
Let’s make Indigenous Day a nationwide occasion on which we bring our Native neighbors into focus, seeing them as they are, instead of through eyes blinded by stereotypes. On this special day we can experience their foods, arts and crafts and learn more about how The First People we tried so hard to destroy have enriched and strengthened our national identity.
Let’s move past race-based divisiveness and toward national unity by getting to know and honor them as staunch patriots. Native Americans have fought with distinction in every major war over the past 200 years and serve in the military more than any other group on a per capita basis.
In the last presidential election these good citizens exercised their hard-won right to vote under very challenging conditions. They turned out in such great numbers that, in several battleground states where the margin of victory was small, they may have determined the outcome.
So yes, we’re definitely still here.