Columbus Day in the United States
Columbus Day is celebrated on the 2nd Monday in October. The first recorded celebration of Columbus Day in the USA was held by the Tammany Society, also known as the Colombian Order, in New York on October 12, 1792, marking the 300th anniversary of Columbus's landing in the Bahamas.
Many Italian-Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of Italian-American heritage. Columbus Day was first celebrated by Italians in San Francisco in 1869, following on the heels of 1866 Italian celebrations in New York City. The first state celebration was in Colorado in 1905, and in 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt set aside Columbus Day as a holiday in the United States. Since 1971, the holiday has been commemorated in the U.S. on the second Monday in October, the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada.
Banks are almost always closed on this day, as are government offices. It is not recognized by most American employers as a day off from work.
Opposition
Some people, particularly Native Americans, find the holiday offensive because they object to honoring a person who they see as opening the door to European colonization, the exploitation of native peoples and the slave trade. In the United States, this has caused a persistent controversy between Native Americans and Italian Americans. Some communities, such as Berkeley, California, have renamed the holiday to Indigenous Peoples Day. The state of South Dakota renamed the holiday Native American Day in 1989. In 2002, the Venezuelan government renamed the holiday to Día de la Resistencia Indígena ("Day of Indigenous Resistance"). In 2004, Venezuelan activists toppled a statue of Columbus in Caracas on the day of the celebration.
Some have argued that the responsibility of contemporary governments and their citizens for allegedly ongoing acts of genocide against Native Americans are masked by positive Columbus myths and celebrations. These critics argue that a particular understanding of the legacy of Columbus has been used to legitimize their actions, and it is this misuse of history that must be exposed. Thus, Ward Churchill (the controversial professor of Ethnic Studies at University of Colorado at Boulder, and a leader of the American Indian Movement), has argued that:
Very high on the list of those expressions of non-indigenous sensibility which contribute to the perpetuation of genocidal policies against Indians are the annual Columbus Day celebration, events in which it is baldly asserted that the process, events, and circumstances described above are, at best, either acceptable or unimportant. More often, the sentiments expressed by the participants are, quite frankly, that the fate of Native America embodied in Columbus and the Columbian legacy is a matter to be openly and enthusiastically applauded as an unrivaled "boon to all mankind". Undeniably, the situation of American Indians will not — in fact cannot — change for the better so long as such attitudes are deemed socially acceptable by the mainstream populace. Hence, such celebrations as Columbus Day must be stopped. (in "Bringing the Law Back Home")
The claim made here is that certain myths about Columbus, and celebrations of Columbus, make it easier for people today to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions, or the actions of their governments.
The archaeological discoveries at L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland and other evidence for Vikings in the New World centuries before Columbus have promoted celebrations of Leif Erikson Day, sometimes as an alternative to Columbus Day, sometimes in addition to it. Leif Erikson and his longship crew are thought to have sailed to the coast of North America around the year 1000.
taken word for word from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbus_Day
Arawak Indians
The term Arawak (from aru, the Lokono word for cassava flour), was used to designate the friendly Amerindians encountered by the Spanish in the Caribbean. These include the Taino, who occupied the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas, the Nepoya and Suppoyo of Trinidad and the Igneri who were supposed to have preceded the Caribs in the Lesser Antilles, together with related groups (including the Lokono) which lived along the eastern coast of South America as far south as what is now Brazil. The group belongs to the Arawakan language family and they were the natives Christopher Columbus found when he first landed in the Americas. The Spanish described them as a peaceful, gentle people, although this description was biased by the fact that any "hostile" groups were automatically classified as Caribs.
It is said that a number of Arawak tribes have been extinct for several hundreds of years. What could have happened that would bring a population that once numbered 2 to 3 million down to just a few thousand by the early part of the 16th century? Throughout history the Arawak where subject to many hostile take-overs, diseases, enslavement, damage to food supplies and much more. Inevitably, by the end of the 16th century the Island Arawak had become extinct.
Columbus, in his log, noted: "They brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and may other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned . . . they do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance . . .. Their spears are made of cane . . . they would make fine servants . . .. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."
related text:
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen