Fresh Ground

no pretense
OCTOBER 12, 2009 12:10PM

In Honor of Indigenous People’s Day

Rate: 12 Flag
Sailing in the service of Queen Isabella of Spain, Columbus actually landed in the Dominican Republic, a tiny island in the Caribbean; but thinking he had discovered the rich and fertile shores of India, Columbus christened the natives Indians.  It was a forgivable oversight; and this classic name, older than the Roman forum, was thereafter used to describe the tawny skinned aborigines who inhabited the new world. 

Columbus wrote that the people he encountered were not wild barbarians, but had good faces; and carrying no weapons, they were both courteous and generous.  They were "very gentle," he said in his letters to Queen Isabella, "without knowing what evil is, without killing, without stealing," and "Because they showed much kindness for us, and because I knew they would be more easily made Christian through love than fear, I gave to some of them colored caps, and some strings of glass beads for their necks, and many other trifles, with which they were delighted; and were so entirely ours, that it was a marvel to see."   Columbus also informed the queen that he would be able to supply all the gold they would need, and also spices, cotton, mastic, aloes, rhubarb, cinnamon, and slaves - "Slaves, as many of these idoloters as Her Highness shall command to be shipped."

Meanwhile, of the Spanish explorers and their great white winged ships, the natives were running from hut to hut and shouting with undisguised awe, "Come; come and see the people from heaven!"    

 

© W. Bruce Wright,  Boulder, CO.

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My country 'tis of thee... Of thee I sing.
dynomyte
October 12, 2009 12:23 PM
That love didn't last long did it? They should call it, Let the Barbarism and Massacres Begin Day.
Michael Rodgers
October 12, 2009 12:43 PM
Zowie. You nailed it. He landed in Jamaica too. Look how well that turned out. OTOH, maybe if he'd sent the Queen some primo ganja...
Sally Swift
October 12, 2009 01:21 PM
a l'l ganga would do no harm to the current PTB.
dynomyte
October 12, 2009 01:23 PM
Me thinks the natives were a bit confused as to where the pale people had actually come from....

He gave them more than mere trinkets. The settlers took more than just land.

Rated.
Bill S.
October 12, 2009 01:31 PM
I still don't understadn why this is holiday! Yeah, lets celebrate massacre and plunder!

Jeez!

Rated!
LadyMiko
October 12, 2009 01:52 PM
Thank you - I am so done with Columbus!
dustbowldiva
October 12, 2009 02:18 PM
So, we're, ah, celebrating the hostile takeover of an entire continent by Europeans?

Yeah, er.

I can totally see why this is a patriotic American holiday!
Verbal Remedy AKA Denise
October 12, 2009 02:18 PM
I've always thought Thanksgiving was a gruesome "holiday."
emma peel
October 12, 2009 03:25 PM
"See the people from heaven." Yeah, that joke works every time.
old new lefty
October 12, 2009 03:28 PM
He turned out to be a very bad administrator, but that is understandable, because his exploits predated, by 350 years, the need to keep a sharp point on a pencil.
Gary Justis
October 12, 2009 07:44 PM
It should be noted, despite our current understanding of history, that Columbus was a man of his times. The Spaniards were ruthless colonialists of an almost incomparable nature; thirsting for resources and booty as much as the most bloodthirsty pirate. Such behavior in the name of country, king, and queen was quite acceptable in those days. Their victims were literally subhuman in their eyes. It's hard to fathom; and yet the genocide is still going on even now; which is even harder to fathom. Some of us have evolved spiritually so far beyond such conduct that we cannot comprehend why it is still going on.

And yet, the quest for riches and land and resources continues all over the globe. It is a human sickness. For some of us, if we are led to do so, we must be doctors of the human spirit. It is a difficult, thankless, and sometimes dangerous job; but the very fact that we have evolved beyond the madness is proof that others can too.

Peace can be spoken in every language.
dynomyte
October 12, 2009 08:17 PM
I wonder if we would be like that when the aliens come and land up in here.

I'd go back to my native American ancestry that I know nothing about and be a high tech Apache or something. Maybe a Comanche.
zumalicious
October 12, 2009 09:32 PM
I've thought alot about that, Zuma. Not too long ago I saw the world premier of a movie about crop circles called 'What in the World?' Highly recommended. Watch it and you won't doubt the existence of ET's and how highly evolved they are. They are using crop circles to contact us in a way that will fascinate and won't freak us out too much, and allow us to get accustomed to the notion of their impending visitations. It's bound to happen. They mean us no harm. (not the ones making the crop circles anyway)

We are all Earthlings, ONE species; many colors and religions and cultures but ONE race. This fact will become hugely evident when the spacemen come. To some, this statement will sound totally absurd and crazy, but it'll happen and then we'll deal with it as humankind and ONE planet Earth.

You be Comanche. I'll be human. For a long time now I've been saying I'm a white Indian... We'll all be Earthlings.
dynomyte
October 12, 2009 09:47 PM
Thanks UK, for your concern; but honestly I am feeling really healthy and positive and taken care of by the universe. I am surrounded by friends and loved ones. Serendipity reigns in my daily life, and synchronicity is in sweetest evidence throughout. I'm fine. Concerned somewhat about issues over which I have no control; slightly frustrated and somewhat aggravated by the actions of some people who are miserably ignorant but over whom I have no control; concerned for the Earth Herself in some regards; but really... thank you, I'm fine. The Golden Rule enriches me.
dynomyte
October 12, 2009 10:52 PM
Well, great minds run in the same channel once again. My post ponders why we celebrate a man who was ten thousand miles off on his calculations and stumbled upon some islands he hadn't even imagined and claimed all of this New World for Spain having never set foot on or even had the slightest conception of the existence of North and South America with its millions of inhabitants, some living in cities to rival the greatest of Europe. Columbus Day, indeed!
Tom Cordle
October 13, 2009 12:34 AM
Thankee, Tom. In the same channel, in the same ocean. But not on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria...
dynomyte
October 13, 2009 09:55 AM
Great and much needed post B. As for blog alerts, I'm not sure anything helps any more. The place has simply grown too big and too biased. But hey, it alerted me to read this and I missed it, so...
Always feel free to shoot me a line my friend.
Rated
Kind of Blue
October 13, 2009 03:23 PM