"Oct. 12 is the important anniversary of the opening of the Americas to settlers, and one that merits celebration, but by commemorating it as Columbus Day, Americans stand to ignore part of the past that deserves to be remembered.

While the holiday has been used to teach ideals of patriotism, and Christopher Columbus has been used as a symbol of an immigrant's right to citizenship, the other side to the discovery of the new country is death and destruction. To many native Americans, Columbus symbolizes slavery.

In order to bridge this gap, perhaps the government should take a cue from Hawaii and call the day Discover's Day?

Though it's been more than 500 years since Columbus found the Americas, consider the story of Mary Black Bonnet.

She was born a Sicangu Lakota on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota in the early 1970s, when some 80 percent of the approximately 9,000 residents were unemployed and almost 50 percent were alcoholics, including her mother.

Mary's father left when she was 2 months old, eventually leading to the court-ordered placement of her and her sister in a foster home.

There, white foster parents adopted them, and until the time she was 10 years old, she was raped repeatedly.

The abuse mercifully stopped when the adoptive parents divorced, but she had to contend with resultant nightmares and suicidal inclinations.

Therapy helped Ms. Bonnet recover, as did her eventual return to Rosebud and reunion with her birth father. But her struggle as a member of one of the smallest ethnic minorities in America is mirrored in the experiences of native Americans across the country."

Get the Story:
David McGrath: Should we even have a Columbus Day? (The Christian Science Monitor 10/9)

Related Stories:
Email hoax claims Columbus parade killed (10/9)