Indigenous Peoples Day

Yesterday was Indigenous Peoples Day. It used to be Columbus Day but that had to be canceled when we learned he did not really discover America. Yes, I know it still says Columbus Day on your calendar. These things take a while to fix.

America was “discovered” by Amerigo Vespucci who proceeded to name the continents after himself.

Columbus “discovered” Hispaniola, an island in the Caribbean Sea, but it had already been discovered by indigenous people whose ancestors probably came from Asia. Columbus took care of that little problem on his next trip by bringing Spanish conquistadors who proceeded to eliminate the indigenous population. The native people weren't Christians and they failed to cough up enough gold. But Columbus never reached the land masses now called North and South America. And he never reached India, which was his intended destination.

So far as we know the indigenous population of North, South and Central America came originally from Asia by way of a land or ice bridge across the Bering Strait. There may also have been some ancestors who sneaked across the Pacific ocean on rafts, just as debris from a tsunami in Japan has been drifting to the coast of Alaska and our northwestern states. And a few Vikings in boats may also have preceded Columbus, although it is not clear that they left any descendants.

Populations migrating to unpopulated regions were popular in early times. The first migrations were from Africa to Europe and Asia. Some of the Asian immigrants settled in India, a land mass that had earlier migrated from Africa and slammed into the continent to form the Himalayas. Later there were migrations of people from Asia eastward toward Europe, southward toward Australia, and westward to America. Some of the westward migrants may actually have come from India, thus justifying the designation of the indigenous people of America as “Indians.” The indigenous peoples of Europe came from various parts of Africa or Asia. So let us belatedly celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day.

If you already celebrated Columbus Day that's okay. Good holidays are hard to find.