Polishing A Turd, -the herofication of Christopher Columbus-

[mikekohr]

Mainstream history often engages in the process of shining a turd. Today, October 12, the celebration of Columbus Day is just such an exercise. My Italian grandfather, a coal miner with a third grade education spent his entire adult life in self education and had a grounded view of history. He was a man of few words. So I remember well his thoughts on the fate of America's First Nations. Grandpa said, "The Indians got screwed."

Below is my tribute to my grandfather and the millions of Taino People that died under the boot of Spanish oppression, dispossesion and extirmination:

1492

Christopher Columbus:

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Taino People were levied taxes of food, cotton, and forced sex. Columbus casually noted in his journals that young girls of the ages 9 to 10 were the most desired by his men. 1) A story recorded by Michele de Cuneo is frightening proof of this abomination. After Columbus and his men fought a battle on Santa Cruz with a small band of Native People, Columbus presented Michele de Cuneo with a captured Taino girl that de Cuneo described as, "....most beautiful." The young maiden was taken by de Cuneo to his cabin where the young woman defended herself so fiercely that de Cuneo wrote, "...I wished I had never started. But to tell you the end of it, I seized a rope and beat her well. She cried out in such a way that you would not believe it! Finally we reached an agreement...." 40)

Estimates of the Taino population of the island of Hispanoila in 1492 range up to 8 million people. In 1496, according to the results of a Spanish census, the populace had dropped to approximately 3 million. By 1516 only 12,000 remained. In 1542, 200 remained alive. By 1555, nearly all 8 million were gone. 1)

The Taino People of the Bahamas did not fare much better. Of an estimated populace of over 50,000 People, the Native population was reduced in the first hundred years after the arrival of the Spanish, to nearly zero. 72)

"How much damage, how many calamities, disruptions and devastations of kingdoms have there been? How many souls have perished in the West Indies over the years and how unjustly? How many unforgivable sins have been committed? ...... What we committed in the West Indies stands out among the most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind...." 1)
-Bartolome de Las Casas- Spanish priest, historian, and compatriot of Christopher Columbus

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read entire piece: http://www.brotherhooddays.com/HEROES.html
sources page: http://www.brotherhooddays.com/sources.htm...