Residents of the city of Atlanta have joined a movement sweeping the country to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous People’s Day.
Sarah Rose, who earlier this year petitioned the city to have rainbow-patterned crosswalks installed in Midtown, is the author of the petition. She and other like-minded individuals presented the petition to the Atlanta City Council recently. With 19,000 signatures as of Oct. 3, Rose argued that despite accounts in many history books, explorer Christopher Columbus didn’t “discover” the Americas.
“He pillaged it and brutalized and enslaved its people,” the petition says. “It is time to stop honoring him.”
Rose added this in the care2petition:
“Columbus’ letters, and those of the men who accompanied him, reveal horrific brutality to the Native people. Columbus started the transatlantic slave trade and cut off the hands of any Native over the age of 14 who didn’t bring him enough gold. Columbus routinely gave his lieutenants women to rape as a “reward.”
He humiliated women in other ways, too: a Native woman who verbally insulted Columbus was made to ride on a mule around the town naked, and then her tongue was cut off. Women who gave birth were so malnorished and unable to produce milk, they often drowned their babies out of desperation.These are just a few accounts of the horrors the Native Americans endured at the hands of Columbus. It is well past time we stop honoring him.”
Several cities around the United States, including Seattle, Los Angeles, have replaced Columbus Day. Several states, including Hawaii, Iowa, South Dakota and Vermont, celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day.
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