Today is Columbus Day , which marks the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. While often seen and celebrated as a day for Italian-American or Catholic pride, for several years it has been protested and criticized by indigenous peoples as glorifying a man who triggered genocide, the slave trade, and committed numerous atrocities (which were so horrific that even the Spanish government were moved to arrest him and extradite him for trial).

One of Columbus’ men, Bartolome De Las Casas, was so mortified by Columbus’ brutal atrocities against the native peoples, that he quit working for Columbus and became a Catholic priest. He described how the Spaniards under Columbus’ command cut off the legs of children who ran from them, to test the sharpness of their blades. According to De Las Casas, the men made bets as to who, with one sweep of his sword, could cut a person in half. He says that Columbus’ men poured people full of boiling soap. In a single day, De Las Casas was an eye witness as the Spanish soldiers dismembered, beheaded, or raped 3000 native people. “Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight as no age can parallel,” De Las Casas wrote. “My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that now I tremble as I write.”

There’s a petition circulating to create a national holiday for Native Americans instead of Columbus. Meanwhile, Survival International points out that the exploitation of indigenous peoples continues today largely unabated. Even defenders of Columbus Day find little to dispute about his record, though they try to split this along some imaginary liberal/conservative axis. I don’t think this has to be a partisan issue. I think that, as a Pagan, it is wise to reconsider the legacy of Columbus, and to show solidarity and support for the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Today is also National Coming Out Day in the United States. For LGBTQ people and their allies, this date is particularly important this year as it comes in the wake of a spate of high-profile bullying-related suicides. A situation that inspired columnist Dan Savage to start the “It Gets Better” project on Youtube.

The culture of suicide and self-hate has to end, and the modern Pagan faiths, who tend towards open and accepting stances regarding sex, gender, and identity, have a special role to play in this. We can make it clear that there is an alternative to theologies that teach sinfulness and shame regarding sexual identity or orientation. We can show solidarity by continuing to stand with them on important issues, and keeping our doors and hearths welcome to all who are persecuted by this poison.

Love and acceptance can be radical acts, and I hope our community will be on the forefront of engaging in the kind of radical and sacred love that breaks barriers and changes culture.

Today is when Columbus Day is observed in the United States of America*. For many indigenous peoples in the Americas, Columbus stands as a symbol of their destruction through imported diseases, and the oppression that came in the wake of European colonialism. One flash-point in these struggles is the yearly Columbus Day Parade in Denver, Colorado, the first State to make it an official holiday, where American Indian Movement (AIM) members, other Native activists, and non-Native groups marching in solidarity are often arrested attempting to block the parade-route.

AIM member Glenn Morris being arrested at
Saturday’s Columbus Day parade in Colorado.

“At least 500 people protested, and many of them came prepared to draw attention and go to jail over their belief that the Italian-American celebration has racist roots … Protesters sat down in the street to face off with police after Morris poured a bucket of red liquid bearing pieces of dismembered toy dolls. “This is only the beginning. The frustration has reached critical mass,” Means said as police led him toward a pair of buses on Stout Street that they used to transport prisoners.”

Some have tried to paint Indian resistance to the holiday as “lefties” who have gone too far with their “political correctness”, a view that diminishes the very real ongoing struggle for justice, respect, and survival by Native peoples.

“Currently, mainstream America has a “just get over it” attitude to native peoples, dismissing our grievances as political correctness gone awry. But in the recent words of an elder, “If the shoe were on the other foot, Americans would carry laminated copies of their ancestors’ treaties until they got their just dues.” Asking the U.S. government to abandon Columbus Day in favor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day is akin to asking for a sea change in the national psychology. It demands a soul-searching objectivity that is simply too threatening to the mainstream culture and economy.”

Efforts to stop celebrations of Columbus Day have met with limited success, Minnesota doesn’t recognize Columbus Day, and South Dakota changed the name to “Native American Day”, but outside of these areas a sense of (perhaps willful) confusion over the issue remains.

“By commemorating the discovery of our country, undisputedly by Columbus, we’re not condoning the oppression that followed but recognizing that from that day forward, from Oct. 12, 1492, the possibility of this nation was born.”

Until that moment of “soul-searching objectivity” happens, Native American activists will continue to speak out, organize alternate events, and protest until change comes.

* The rest of the world observes it on the 12th, the actual day of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas. Venezuela celebrates a “Day of Indigenous Resistance” instead of Columbus Day.