Why Is Christopher Columbus Day To Indigenous People Day Important

History is written by the victors and this is proven time and time again as we see the victors of a historic event praised for everything they did, good and bad, while the losers have their failures given the most attention. Those who don’t triumph, do not get their story told. This has been proven through the history of the Americas and Christopher Columbus.

As children, we were taught that Christopher Columbus “sailed the ocean blue in 1492,” and is known for discovering America. We were told about his great adventures and significant discoveries. Our textbooks describe him as a hero who changed the world for the good by following his dreams. Columbus was seen as such an influential person that we even had a holiday named after him. All of this is what we’re taught in history

There are always several sides to every story and in order to learn the truth about history, it’s necessary to know every side there is to know. For example, if the native people’s version of the Spanish conquest was never told, we would all still continue celebrating Christopher Columbus for all the wrong reasons. Changing Christopher Columbus Day to Indigenous People Day is significant because we have changed it from celebrating the villain to acknowledging the victims and what they everything that they had to go through.

The way history remembers Columbus is significant because it’s an example of how Western civilization took over the Americas and how white became the dominant race in America. Columbus was the first messenger sent to the Americas from a Western civilization and he wrote, “As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts,” (Zinn) which explains how Columbus wanted to take over America and he was willing to constrain the Natives just to do