Columbia no hero to aboriginal peoples

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Pikiskwe

For the aboriginal people of the Americas, 500 years is just a heartbeat in our lifetime. Our history began thousands of years before the sadist Christopher Columbus stumbled upon our shores.

Our ancestors hunted the Mastodon and traversed the glaciers to settle at the southern most tip of South America and all places in between. Before Columbus arrived, they built the temples at Teotihuacan, developed the 365-day calendar and understood the concept of "zero".

But I suppose what will be remembered as our greatest achievement is the survival of 500 years of European oppression.

This week's anniversary, there will be numerous celebrations taking place for this man, who in 60 hears annihilated the total aboriginal population of the West Indies and the Caribbean Islands.

Let's review the Columbus myth. Columbus was a great intellectual who wanted to prove the earth was round. He went from one European kingdom to the next trying to find some monarch to finance his expedition to sail to China using a western route.

Queen Isabella of Portugal, not the true monarch, backed him using her personal jewels.

He left for the new world on ship with billowing sails with priests sent to Christianize inhabitants. He landed wearing clean, white, frilly shirts, with a flag in one hand and a cross in the other.

The reality is the lands of the Americas were common Maritime knowledge.

There were even a few books written about the Norse travels that included accurate geographical information. It is known that Columbus owned a copy of one of these books.

When Columbus landed, his men must have been on the verge of mutiny. They were low on food and water. What the Arawaks greeted 50 years ago were a tired, hungry and dirty lot.

The Arawaks provided food and water, and later rescued one of Columbus' ships. He repaid them with slavery and death.

As governor, he set up a quota system for the Arawaks. Those Arawaks that did not meet the quota were killed by having their hands cut off. Columbus wrote with pride of how he would use green wood as opposed to dry wood when he burned Indians at the stake, so as to prolong their agony. And when he hanged Indians he did so in groups of 13, "in memory of Our Redeemer and His 12 Apostles."

Slavery would not prove profitable because the Arawaks would sooner drink poison than live under Columbus' oppression.

Bartolomi de Las Casas, Columbus' priest, believed there were more than 40 million dead by the year 1560. It wasn't long before the first African slaves were brought to the islands to continue work in their mines.

No, this October 12, we the aboriginal people of these two continents will not celebrate his arrival. We will fast and pray.

But the next day, we will prepare a feast, and there will be much celebration of

our survival as people.