"Another Columbus Day has passed with about as much attention as it deserved, and apparently no question as to why we celebrate a holiday in his name.

Most of us know Columbus didn’t discover America, although some once believed he did. What he did discover was a band of Indians, many of whom swam out to greet the sailors and give them food.

What Columbus and his crew gave them was disease, enslavement and death. That tribe soon after ceased to exist. Notes from his diary reveal what the little navigator promised his Spanish sponsors — “... as much gold as they need and as many slaves as they ask.”

This was the start of the exploitation and extermination of millions of native people in North and South America, culminating in this country’s arrogant program called “manifest destiny.”

The symbolic final blow was dealt in 1890 with the massacre of several hundred unarmed Lakota Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota."

Get the Story:
Thomas Chapman: Columbus Day best forgotten (The Santa Maria Times 11/11)