André Cramblit: An 'annoying' trilogy of holidays for Native people

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey… actually the foliage is awash with color but it is time for the annoying trilogy of holidaze that vex us as Natives. Ah yes, ‘tis the season of Columbus Day, Halloween and the American Thanksgiving. This trifecta of annoying events makes me SMH in befuddlement at the ignorance, crass behavior and borderline bigotry of those that continue the misanthropic adherence to the myths, rituals and customs of these celebrations. This edition of André’s dialectic diatribe has to suffice for my more usual dispersal of numerous emails regarding the ongoing antics of the autumnal season. So here goes…

Columbus Day: Let it go! Whether or not you support the change over from lauding a lost explorer to honoring Natives by declaring it Indigenous Peoples Day, it is time to put this disagreeable remembrance behind us. Good ol’ Cap’n Chris didn’t discover anything. He was the harbinger of a genocide that decimated the Native nations of this hemisphere. His happenstance landing upon the Carribian shores heralded the manifest destiny mania that followed some 100 years later that swept our people into mass graves. Calendars should be free of his presence. ‘Nuff said.