Exploring Columbus Day’S Dark Side Native Americans On Panel Reflect On Dire Effects Of Colonization

Columbus Day should be mourned, not celebrated, because the autumn day will forever mark the time when great nations were destroyed in the Americas, said members of local Indian tribes.

Native Americans held a panel discussion Monday at North Idaho College, launching the college’s American Indian Awareness Week. As many government offices and schools closed to observe Columbus Day, the panel contemplated the impacts of colonization.

Because of the explorer’s arrival, complete tribes were destroyed - from disease and oppression, they said. It was as if entire cultures were erased, forgotten in the name of discovery and heroism, tribal leaders said. Even today, indigenous cultures’ stories have largely remained invisible in school history books.

“Sometimes I try to picture the welcoming committee,” said Martina Whelshula, a member of the Colville Tribe. “If he was coming, how did the Indian people know?”

Columbus Day, observed Monday, should be a time to remember the atrocities the indigenous people have experienced since 1492, panelists said.

“I’m just feeling kind of numb,” said Whelshula “I’m sorry … It puts me in the place where I feel the loss. Please understand what we have to offer - help us portray a history that’s more correct.”

Colonialism in the New World can be compared to the tragedies of the Holocaust, said Leah Henry-Slaney, a board member of the Northwest Coalition for Human Dignity. Henry-Slaney, a member of the Nez Perce Tribe, represents the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians.

“The anti-Indian movement, it got its start when Columbus stumbled on the shores,” said Henry-Slaney. “The people of this country, they can sweep genocide under the carpet. We never heard the native perspective of the story.”

Columbus was in search of worldwide recognition, money, domination and status, Whelshula said. In his journals, Columbus first referred to the Indians as a people full of love, gentle and without greed. Columbus then cut off their hands when they didn’t bring him gold.

College students listening to the talks sympathized with the speakers over the tragedies caused by the Europeans’ arrival to the New World. They tried to explain why such an event could be ignored.

“A lot of our hatred for people stems from what we don’t know,” said Brett Becker, an NIC student. “I am very sorrowful because I don’t know who I am or where I’m from, and I think that’s a huge part of the problem.”

Anti-Indian sentiment only continues to grow, said Henry-Slaney. Today, Indian struggles involve property rights, exploitation and the preservation of tribes’ natural resources.

A challenge is to protect the American Indians’ knowledge, traditions and languages passed on from tribal elders, said Darrell Tso, NIC’s minority recruiter. Though the knowledge is sacred, it must be preserved - not exploited, he said.

Indian people have reached a state of crisis in efforts to preserve their cultures, said Whelshula, because the last elders who truly know the languages are dying. It’s information that can still help solve today’s problems, guidance that includes the spiritual, emotional and psychological aspects.

An example is Whelshula’s tribe’s greeting in the nselxein language, “stim aspu-us,” meaning “What’s in your heart?” The greeting asks how an individual is doing and what the person needs, she said, instead of the Western mentality that focuses on “I” and “me.”

“It’s more than just a culture and a language,” she said, “but a whole worldview.”

This sidebar appeared with the story:

AT A GLANCE

American Indian Awareness Week

Schedule of additional lectures, held from 11 a.m. to noon at North Idaho College’s Driftwood Bay Room:

Today: Richard Muller, Coeur d’Alene historian, will talk about “The History and Importance of Yap-Keehn-Um, The Gathering Place.”

Wednesday: Cliff SiJohn, member of the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, will discuss horses and Native American perspectives on the animals.

Thursday: David Browneagele, from the Spokane Tribe, and Diane Allen, from the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, will present issues of cultural values versus educational values.

Friday: Gary Fox will speak on “Cultural Preservation: Hand Drumming, Bringing Back the Prairie Chicken Dance.”

Friday and Saturday: The Yap-Keehn-Um 200 powwow will begin with a grand entry on Friday at 7 p.m. It will continue on Saturday at 1 p.m. in North Idaho College’s Christianson Gymnasium.

All events are free and open to the public.