As people across the Americas observe the first crossing to the New World by European explorers this Columbus Day, his impact on native populations is being looked at with a speculative eye by some if not all nations in the New World.
In the United States, this has arguably been the most prevalent with some states including Washington choosing to either rename the day or scrap it as a holiday all together.
In Washington, the second Monday of September is no longer a public holiday with banks still performing transactions and schools staying open on the second Monday of October.
This is important to many people who care only about said day off. Daniel Malteyev, a student at Skyline High School said “Well, if it’s a public holiday, I support it.”
This attitude of apathy is present in much of the population, caring more about things that affect them day-to-day rather than debates among high society.
That has not stopped politicians drawing upon this event to gain support, especially with marginalized groups. Two years ago, President Joe Biden became the first president to give a presidential proclamation on the so called “Indigenous Peoples Day” while also giving a congressional mandatory proclamation on Columbus Day.
Whilst this recognition of Native Americans may be felt to those same marginalized groups, their benefit may be less felt than one may expect; less than one percent of students at Skyline High School identify as American Indian as compared with the over 80% coming from European or Asian backgrounds, significantly lower than the slightly over one percent in United States at large.
But despite such a small population, the hardship of the original inhabitants has gained interest from both historians and popular media outlets; up to and including even the most publicly known of figures such as Columbus.
Christopher Columbus, who once was celebrated as a brave explorer who braved many dangers to discover the new world is now seen by some activists as a genocidal slaver whose accidental discovery killed millions and led to massive European exploitation of the New World.
A YouGov poll in 2020 involving over 7000 respondents show that Columbus is seen more as a villain than a hero with 40 percent thinking that he had a negative impact as opposed to 32 percent who think of him positively.
This is increasingly true among educated Americans with a 2019 poll that surveyed 1,500 college students and showed that 79 percent of participants approved of changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day in what was and is a glorified popularity test, citing the treatment of Native Americans and claiming that he didn’t discover America.
They offer instead other candidates including Norse explorer Leif Eriksson, Juan Ponce de León who in 1513, discovered what would now become the United States and the ancestors of the current indigenous people who crossed from Asia into what is now Alaska.
This reckoning in the United States towards its historically genocidal relationship with their indigenous peoples that is displayed by both citizens and their governments is still relatively unique. Rather, many other nations choose to continue their severe stance on indigenous peoples, brushing their native populations into the background out of view.
This is to such effect that the demographics of Argentina it makes it look more European than its many neighbors in South America.
Statistics show that over 97% of Argentineans are either wholly European or people with mixed native and European ancestry and are culturally European. Only one percent of Argentinians identify as fully indigenous.
Megan Dunn, a Spanish teacher at Skyline High School and who spent many years living in Latin America said that the presence of indigenous people was “not apparent” despite actively traveling across the country.
Whilst having a similar percentage of natives to the United States, Argentina has sought to hide and hinder its indigenous population rather than attempting to help them to flourish.
Economic desires including the discovery of large lithium deposits resulting in the halting of enforcement of native land rights. It is said that these native peoples are still treated by many Argentinians as second-class citizens despite being illegal by frequently ignored constitutional protections.
A process that is unlikely to be ended quickly.