![]() ![]() Instead, it is cynical move that further isolates Native American culture rather than truly celebrating it.Nationally, Monday marks Columbus Day. We do not have the authority to atone for things we did not commit. Grafting it onto Columbus Day is not a way to atone for the sins of the past. Indigenous people absolutely should have their own national holiday, but it should be their own. These family legends were created because non Native Americans wanted a connection to the American Indian and understood how vital they and their history are to the land where we live. And even as the website Ancestry dot com debunks more and more of these stories every day, it is important to understand the impulse behind the stories. It is telling that so many Americans, like Senator Elizabeth Warren, have family myths about a far back Indian ancestor. Now we find ourselves so afraid of cultural appropriation that we mostly don’t tell the stories at all. Often, though not always, they were depicted in ways that we now find offensive. Throughout the 19 th and much of the 20 th Century, the American Indian was a central figure in our storytelling. It’s easier to just tell another story about King Arthur than get your story about Native Americans through a barrage of sensitivity editors.Īnd this was not always the case. And this obviously makes it harder to incorporate this into our story of the nation and ourselves. Many aspects of Native American culture have been placed, in some sense, off limits. The characters and stories are infused with this landscape, and much of the magic is derived from the connection that Native American nations felt to place.”Įmmons makes the persuasive argument that the reason these stories are not more predominant in our culture today is out of fear of being accused of cultural appropriation. They open up a realm of imagination that can be matched in Beowulf or the Edda, but with characteristics of a natural environment that is uniquely North American. In a recent article for” Unherd,” Libby Emmons wrote of Native American folklore and stories that, “Reading them, it’s clear that the US would gain culturally if these myths were as much a part of our tradition as European legends. But Native American history is vastly more than that, and reaches back much farther than the Columbian journeys. By setting the two against each other, depending on what town you live in, we are centering the Native American story on Columbus and the history of white oppression. ![]() But in fact, the reasons for giving Native American history and culture its own separate day, rather than a hand-me-down, are even more compelling. There are more arguments in favor, such as a general continuity with our past. In fact, during a recent effort to take down the statue at Columbus Circle in New York City, it was this argument from Italian Americans that saved the work of art. When Italian Americans celebrated the day, or built statues to Columbus, it was first and foremost to pronounce themselves Americans, and that is certainly worth celebrating. We can acknowledge that contribution and understand his flaws at the same time.Īnother reason to keep Columbus Day is that it itself was created by a marginalized group of immigrants trying express patriotism and fidelity to the United States. Whatever one makes of the ultimate moral repercussions of his exploration, it established the groundwork for the New World, of which our nation is now the central power. One is that by any reasonable estimation Columbus achieved success that was transformational for the entire world and specifically for the Americas. There are several compelling reasons to keep Columbus Day on the calendar.
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