Columbus' darker side emerges in classrooms

[underpants]

Columbus' stature in U.S. classrooms has declined somewhat through the years, and many districts will not observe his namesake holiday on Monday. Although lessons vary, many teachers are trying to present a more balanced perspective of what happened after Columbus reached the Caribbean and the suffering of indigenous populations.

‘Columbian Exchange’
In Texas, students start learning in the fifth grade about the "Columbian Exchange" — which consisted not only of gold, crops and goods shipped back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, but diseases carried by settlers that decimated native populations.

In McDonald, Pa., 30 miles southwest of Pittsburgh, fourth-grade students at Fort Cherry Elementary put Columbus on trial this year — charging him with misrepresenting the Spanish crown and thievery. They found him guilty and sentenced him to life in prison.

"In their own verbiage, he was a bad guy," teacher Laurie Crawford said.


'Anything but a balanced presentation'
"My impression is that in some classrooms, it's anything but a balanced presentation," Korten, said. "That it's deliberately very negative, which is a matter of great concern because that is not accurate."


"Every hero is somebody else's villain," said Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, a scholar and author of several books related to Columbus, including "1492: The Year the World Began."

"Heroism and villainy are just two sides of the same coin."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33266425/ns/us_news-education/page/2/

[subcomhd]

1. Columbus wasn't really good at anything.

His "discovery" was purely by accident. He thought the world was a lot smaller than it is. If he hadn't dumbassed upon an unknown hemisphere, he and all of his crew would have died.

[SpiralHawk]

2. "So true. My shameful military record makes me a hero to republicons." - xCommander AWOL (R)

"while Americans with a lick of honor or integrity know what a blasphemous FAIL phony I really am. Smirk."

- xCommander AWOL (R)

[SpiralHawk]

3. "Funny 'bout dat. Sneer." - XVP Dickie 'Five-Military-Deferments' Cheney (R)

[Rex]

15. Ah yes, mission accomplished! I am Romulux!

Leader of free nations, beholder to the Sun! Throttled by light, the vizier of denizers. Watch me drive!

[cleverusername]

4. Critical thinking not allowed

Students aren't allowed to question the traditional view on Columbus? That would give students critical thinking skills and we certainly can't have that! :banghead:

[underpants]

5. Howard Zinn is winning here

He has for a long time been the major proponent of telling the entire story of Columbus

this, to me, is good to see

[Gabi Hayes]

8. interesting site: Columbus, the original american 'hero,' prompted, basically, by Zinn:

Zinn's A People's History of the United States is filled with insightful nuggets. His book should be read in American classrooms instead of the paeans to Columbus.

What has happened during the past generation, with Columbus’ heroic image being tarnished, is not new facts arising, but looking at the facts objectively. The picture that then emerged can rightly be called horrifying. Indeed, what have our ancestors been cheering about? Yet, we still have a national holiday called Columbus Day.

We cannot all get on boats and sail back to Europe. The acts of our ancestors are not pretty, and if we had been born then, we might have done the same. The past is the past, and we can do nothing about it except learn from it, and perhaps try healing some of the damage that our ancestors inflicted, such as treating the remnants of the native tribes a lot better, even giving back some of the land that our ancestors murderously stole from theirs. Celebrating what our ancestors did and lying about the past seem the most inappropriate responses, and probably underlie a mass psychosis.

Along with Zinn, there have been other efforts to counter the Columbus Myth propaganda. Hans Koning's Columbus, His Enterprise, was published in 1976, which was Zinn's first inkling that the story that Zinn, a Ph.D. in history, had been taught about Columbus might be a little awry. My college history textbook also did nothing to try challenging the Columbus Myth. In the 1991 edition of Columbus, His Enterprise, the final chapter is titled "Columbus in the Classroom," written by Bill Bigelow. Bigelow described that presentation he makes to his classes every year, and then led them down the inexorable path of understanding that the European "discovery" of the New World was really invasion, murder and theft from the people who had been living here for millennia.


http://www.ahealedplanet.net/columbus.htm

[hedgehog]

6. In an America dominated by stories of the Pilgrims and Protestant, English speaking

Founding Fathers ( who outside of New York is aware of Nicholas Herkimer?), the myth of the Catholic, non- Aryan Christopher Columbus as man who discovered America was an important way for many immigrants to assert their right to be authentically American. Hence, Father Michael J. McGivney named his mutual aid society for Catholic men the Knights of Columbus. The 19th century was not a period noted for its sensitivity to aboriginal rights, either, so many parts of Columbus's story were glossed over or ignored.

Columbus did many terrible things, not least among them enslave whatever Indians he encountered. A lot of his accomplishments were the result of sheer luck. The same could be said of many other European explorers. He was a man of his time. Due to the way history is divided into European history and American history in most schools, it's easy to forget that Columbus's Ferdinand and Isabella were the same two people who drove Jews and Moslems from Spain. So is Columbus Hero? Villain? Both? Neither?

[pretzel4gore]

7. he didn't discover The Big One; we did

we populated it from north to south pole, from coast to coast. There were about 125 million of us. Yet we so little renovated the environment the thieves were almost able to pretend we were incidental, and airbrush us right outta the picture. Dodo birds, sort of. And now the thieves have got themselves into a jam they probably aint gonna get out of (foxnews being fair en balanced) The truth will make us free, which maybe explains our imprisonment

[XemaSab]

9. My understanding is that the current research suggests

that Native Americans modified the environment a LOT when they arrived, and continued to modify it up to the time of the European conquest.

[Mixopterus]

10. Absolutely

There is some strong evidence civilizations like the Mayans wrecked their environment on a scale not seen since antiquity.

[Libertas1776]

12. I remember learning in an Ecology class

how the Woolly Mammoth likely went extinct partly because of over hunting on the part of native peoples as they made their way across the land bridge and down toward South America. Granted, it took a while. I think they called it the "1,000 Year Long BBQ."

[Gabi Hayes]

17. wrong-o

you need to brush up on the latest 'research'

hint: geo-climatological

[Mixopterus]

19. Ah, you mean one of the competing theories

Well, it's a theory, and it's competing with the others. This isn't exactly my field, so have they (the experts) reached some sort of consensus?

[pretzel4gore]

13. modify, for sure...

there was an article in the Atlantic Monthly- heck i forget the date, '02 i believe(?) in which the professers argue about the Amazon jungle. One professor said the 'indians' actually created the immense jungle, by means of weirs and canals etc- you can see the outlines from space. It was a vast garden, in effect, and a large, very adept people lived there, in total harmony with nature and built it from what could have been a sahara desert. All this is nice and so on, but, the point is, I, as a 1st nations person, sometimes wonder; how much history has been lost, how much knowlege and so on? Maybe more then was left in the kitty! Apparently, the fossil record shows that the n american bison herd was maintained at a sustainable level over a thousand years when, in the 1600's, when disease wiped out the injuns, the fossil record suddenly grows exponentially, until by wagon train times, the bison herds took days to pass by astonished settlers, they were so vast. Yet the history books never even suggest any of this (and they must have known of it) Cecil rhodes INTENTIONALLY had any mention of the ruins of great cities discovered in Africa supressed, because he claimed its wealth, and by promoting the 'dark continent' idea, he has basically succeeded in a huge theft. There was a documented case of N American Indians getting shipwrecked in Holland back in 11th century; i read about that somewhere. Iow, we really have no idea what went down in the real history, as the thieves had to cover up their crimes- hell it's embarassing to be known as a thief. So, it's all quite pointless to cry over spilled milk, but why do they get away with denying that cows exist?

[bigmonkey]

20. Do you have anything further on the 11th century shipwreck?

I'd really like to know more.

Because of the swift and devastating effects of the introduction of disease, we (humanity in general) have lost a huge amount of history when it comes to the Western Hemisphere. We don't even know how much we've lost.

[pretzel4gore]

21. unfortunately

No. Years ago i tried to find out more, to no avail. I've read so much stuff over the years, the mention of the case in Holland stuck in memory, and google nowadays just leads one around until hours are wasted. The reference was in connection to steles built by africans found on coast of Brazil, again, if i remember right! The 'Holland' and '11th century' details were so remarkable, however, i still recall them. The Vikings, as you know, were possibly already then visiting N America, and when 'documentation' was mentioned...(?)... But god knows where i read about that: i read too much Immanuel Velikowsky and Von daneikan etc in those days, about thor Heyerdahl and so on. One of the problems with the idea that there were adhoc intercourses between the continents pre columbus is, of course, the diseases that later had such impact; but the 'guns' gods and steel' idea really trivialises the arbitrariness of so much of history imo. There must be more

[hedgehog]

14. I hear you. Down the road from me is a sign reading

"Welcome to Oswego, discovered by Pere LeMoyne in 1635". No mention of the people who happened to be living there when he "discovered" them!


I think you are incorrect about the environmental renovation. The people on these continents made changes in each particular area to support that large population. For example, here in Upstate New York, the local peoples practiced agriculture and protected the land's fertility by planting the Three Sisters; corn, beans and squash. Elsewhere, fire was used on a routine basis to control the vegetation.

Rather than being an example of humans living with no effect on the environment, the First Peoples offer an example of being a beneficial part of the environment.

[pretzel4gore]

18. i agree with this.

had the 1st nations thought in the linear time model europe practised, one would stumble over their fossils everytime the ground was disturbed, but for all the living that went on, throughout the americas, the proof of earlier inhabitation was so slight that, only a few generations after the 1st nations died off, the new owners easily proclaimed the land empty of people (beyond 'savage' hunter gatherer bands)I read once that, had the americas really been bereft of people prior to colonisation, then the task of taming the land would have taken much longer, and have cost so much full colonisation would have been postponed a hundred years or so. Regardless, i know the liars cannot tell us who murdered the leader of the greatest military power on earth in 1963, or who set upthe KAL 007 shootdown in '83, or how the sissypoos gop stole the 2k election, or wtf was the idea behind 911. And until they do, then shutupshutupshutup about the 1st nations and how we ran the joint

[tama]

22. Plenty of renovations

Hunting some big mammals so they were no more (Europeans brought horses again). A forest garden of whole California tended with controlled fire (->much less frequent uncontrollod fires that burn tree tops) and other basic gardening skills. Lots to hunt in forest garden and bison herds coming regularly, pretty easy and decent living. On the other hand, not so sure if those pyramids in Central America was smart idea to begin with.

So our cousins who didn't stay in Siberia but went to new world did some things maybe not smart and some other things that IMHO were very wise and admirable (e.g. forest garden of California). We were not allways perfect but mostly good, nature deserved also our presence and was more rich and beautifull with also us participating in ecology, mostly in organic way instead of cancer-like.

Sadly, same cannot be said of European conquerors who have now conquered this whole planet and are still pillaging and making it unlivable, not only to non-Europeans but also to themselves. They don't know how to behave organically, modestly within limits, just how to pillage and consume to grow bigger and mightier, like a cancer tumor destroying the carrying capacity of it's host. Maybe they learn.

Stopping celebrating Columbus day - if not for any other reason, to be polite towards offspring of victims of Columbus and other European conquerors, who they for some reason want to consider as fellow citizens - would be a good step along the learning process.

[Libertas1776]

11. All that Columbus BS

we learned in school was from a largely fictional "biography" of the man written by a master of weaving fanciful tales, Washington Irving. No one, at least not the sailors and navigators and all other sea going people thought the world was flat. That is complete utter bullshit made up by Irving. And Columbus never said he discovered a new world. The moron thought he found Asia and he stuck to that story until the day he died. Then, of course, there is the numerous atrocities and murderous destruction he committed against the natives.

As part Italian, I always get so pissed when Columbus Day comes around. This is the best person the Italian American community can rally around, a marauder and a murderer. We might as well call it Cosa Nostra Day. Not to mention the fact that Columbus wasn't "Italian" since there was no Italy back then. He was a Genoan who sailed for Spain. Why? Because the Italian states, who had a monopoly on the Mediterranean route to Asia, didn't want Columbus fucking up their cash cow. And now, today, we have to act like he is some kind of hero.

I would much prefer a Garibaldi Day. Now there is someone I could rally around, the real father of modern Italy, and a revolutionary hero across the globe, including here in the US. In fact, Garibaldi came very close to becoming a Union commander at the start of the Civil War when Lincoln asked him to take the position. However, Garibaldi had one condition, that the sole objective of the war be declared as to abolish slavery. His condition wasn't met and he left to do other things, although Lincoln would change his tune on slavery mid way through the war.

[underpants]

16. A completely thorough and excellent post. Thank you

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Garibaldi