Recovering From Colonialism

"Today, we tell a story of colonialism, dispossession, and cultural renaissance as a lens through which to understand alienation, a primary condition of modernity."

Click on the link below for the podcast which delves into how colonized cultures can come back to live at least to some degree within their indigenous communities:

Exist, Resist, Indigenize, Decolonize

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"The murder rate for native women and girls living on reservations in the U.S. is ten times higher than the national average for women, according to the Urban Indian Health Institute. Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Justice’s federal missing person database only logs a fraction of those cases. Our guest this week, who has investigated cases for indigenous girls from nine months old to women in their eighties, points out that this is part of a broader trend of data erasure. Abigail Echo-Hawk is the director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, which focuses on research and decolonizing data for urban American Indian and Alaska Native communities. She also serves as executive vice president of the Seattle Indian Health Board and is an enrolled citizen of the Pawnee Nation of Oklahoma. She joins WITHpod to discuss recovering the true story of her people prior to and post the Columbus encounter, the importance of rethinking misconceptions, health disparities in indigenous and Alaska native communities, and the work that lies ahead to break down feelings of 'invisibility.'”

Click on the link below for a better understanding of the need for an Indigenous Peoples Day:

Recovering Native Narratives and Data

The Americas Before Columbus

In recent years around this time in the Fall, controversy erupts over the question of the role, if any, Christopher Columbus should play in the USA's recognition of notable individuals in its history. This book, entitled 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, is a welcome counter to the claims of conservatives:

"Traditionally, Americans learned in school that the ancestors of the people who inhabited the Western Hemisphere at the time of Columbus’s landing had crossed the Bering Strait twelve thousand years ago; existed mainly in small, nomadic bands; and lived so lightly on the land that the Americas was, for all practical purposes, still a vast wilderness.

"In a book that startles and persuades, Mann reveals how a new generation of researchers equipped with novel scientific techniques came to previously unheard-of conclusions. Among them:

• In 1491 there were probably more people living in the Americas than in Europe.
• Certain cities–such as Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital–were far greater in population than any contemporary European city. Furthermore, Tenochtitlán, unlike any capital in Europe at that time, had running water, beautiful botanical gardens, and immaculately clean streets.
• The earliest cities in the Western Hemisphere were thriving before the Egyptians built the great pyramids.
• Pre-Columbian Indians in Mexico developed corn by a breeding process so sophisticated that the journal Science recently described it as “man’s first, and perhaps the greatest, feat of genetic engineering.”
• Amazonian Indians learned how to farm the rain forest without destroying it–a process scientists are studying today in the hope of regaining this lost knowledge.
• Native Americans transformed their land so completely that Europeans arrived in a hemisphere already massively “landscaped” by human beings."

European Colonialism Demythicized

There is a strong movement from the US political Left to remove statues of Christopher Columbus and his holiday because of the verified cruelty of many of his actions (link). The political Right is in opposition to these actions (link). What is the truth about him? The link below is to a podcast that goes in-depth on the actions of Columbus, the general history of European colonialization, and "American Exceptionalism:"

Tell Stories, Not Myths: Columbus and the Centrality of Colonialism

Christopher Columbus: Hero Or Monster?

Anyone paying attention to the media during Columbus Day will note that there has been a noticeable change in public opinion regarding the character of Christopher Columbus. Below please find links to some representative examples of different perceptions of the man and his motives:

The typical Catholic whitewashing

Was Christopher Columbus a Hero or Villain?

9 reasons Christopher Columbus was a murderer, tyrant, and scoundrel

Columbus and Genocide

Coard: Five facts proving Columbus was one of history's worst monsters

10 Facts About Christopher Columbus

11 Christopher Columbus Facts That Most Of Us Learned - But Are Totally Wrong

The Truth of Christopher Columbus

Please note that only the first link overlooks the truth. Ironically, the Catholic Church constantly promotes itself as "The Truth."