Columbus Legacy A Lie

Great sales and festivities will undoubtedly be planned for the 500th anniversary of Columbus's first trans-Atlantic voyage, but that landmark also provides an opportunity to question the appropriateness of uncritical celebrations. Such a debate could possibly lead to the discovery of the American past, which is quite different from the myths at the heart of the Columbus legacy.

Although Columbus never set foot on land that has become one of the United States, a federal holiday honors him, we learn at an early age, for his courage, daring, and "discovery" of the "New World."

It is possible that within two years many more Americans will become aware of Columbus's personal shortcomings, such as his well-documented slave-trading and sadistic, genocidal treatment of native Arawaks in his quest for nonexistent gold. But the venerable myth of "discovery" is perhaps even more sinister.

The idea of discovery underpins the most enduring and simplistic version of American history. If there was truly a discovery, familiar notions like New World, wilderness, virgin land, pioneers and settlers - the core of so many meditations on the "American character" - make sense. Yet if to discover means "to see or learn about for the first time," it is obvious that the Arawaks and other people who had been living on this side of the Atlantic for centuries discovered the region first.

The entire North American continent had been settled, by human beings, for tens of thousands of years prior to Columbus's first voyage. American history has been unable to accommodate this simple, indisputable fact. Most non-Indian newcomers did not understand or appreciate native use of the land, and they often did not recognize native people as full-fledged human beings.

A commonly used dictionary defines wilderness as "a region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings." Once the humanity of native Americans is recognized, the racism inherent in this familiar term is obvious to anyone. If virgin land is "unaltered by human activity," there was very little to be had on this continent when non-Indians arrived. The true pioneers, "the first to settle in a territory," had been sustaining themselves on the land for centuries.

This hemisphere might have been new to non-Indians, but that qualification should make a world of difference in how this nation views its past. Imagine American history without a recognizable frontier, "the margin of settled or developed territory." Imagine the Jamestown colonist and Pilgrims as invaders, those who "enter for conquest or plunder," and "encroach." Imagine empathizing with Indian freedom fighters, struggling for independence against determined invaders like George Washington, who argued that native people had no human characteristics, "except the shape."

If Cold-War nightmares had come true and the Soviets had successfully invaded and re-populated the United States, surviving Americans would have been incensed to read about Soviet pioneers settling the wilderness and civilizing the capitalist savages. Yet many Americans believe similarly outrageous tales about their own past.

The myth of discovery masks the reality of invasion. Evil as Saddam Hussein might be, he has not grabbed nearly as much foreign soil as did still-revered leaders like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and many thousands of their fellow citizens. When Indians are recognized as humans, such a statement is not even controversial.

Myths are traditional stories, based on allegedly historical event that reveal much about the people who tell them. The myths of discovery, wilderness and non-Indian pioneers express this nation's commitment to a primitive, racist version of its past. That is what Columbus Day is all about, and that is why confronting the quincentennial is so important.