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Los Angeles Says, “Goodbye, Columbus”
Today the Los Angeles City Council voted 14-1 to replace the celebration of Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day. Thus, Los Angeles joins a number of other progressive cities including Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, Berkeley, and Santa Cruz in kicking Christopher Columbus to the curb in favor of indigenous peoples. The Los Angeles effort was led by Councilman Mitch O’Farrell who is a proud member of the Wyandotte tribe.
I must admit I don’t fully understand the infantile fascination and celebration by progressives of societies and peoples described variously as Native American, Indigenous Peoples, Indians (politically incorrect) or Pre-Columbian Americans (PCA’s) as some sort of numinous people. Mr O’Farrell in making the case for this change stated the following;
“Christopher Columbus’ legacy of extreme violence, enslavement, and brutality is not in dispute. Nor is the suffering, destruction of cultures, and subjugation of Los Angeles’ original indigenous people, who were here thousands of years before anyone else”.
Well, ok then. Christopher Columbus did commit many brutal acts against native peoples in his explorations of the New World, as would many other Europeans in its exploration, settling, and conquering. That, though, is neither a new nor unique story, and it’s not the reason Columbus Day was originally celebrated. The permanent linking of the Old World and the New World is a major event in human history worthy of acknowledgement. A large portion of world history is no more than the story of one group conquering another group. In fact, most of the Europeans who would settle in the New World had ancestors who many centuries earlier had themselves been conquered (and eventually civilized) by a more modern and advanced civilization — the Romans. In any event, the native Americans didn’t need any lessons in extreme violence, enslavement or brutality from Europeans. They had been engaging in these behaviors long before their initial contact with Europeans.
The most highly developed of the pre-Columbian peoples were the Maya, Aztec, and Inca. These three civilizations had much in common; well developed and elaborate irrigation and agriculture with a wide variety of domesticated animals and plants, complex social and cultural organization, advanced and intricate calendar and astronomical knowledge, highly developed religions of the pagan variety, and fierce ideologies of conquest and imperial expansion.
Like the Old World, the Maya had a hierarchical society based on wealth, prestige, and family lineage, and slavery was an integral part of society. The Maya built great stone cities and pyramids with no beasts of burden and only stone tools. This was the case for the other two as well, as these societies along with every other people throughout the New World had little or no knowledge of metallurgy or metal-working and beasts of burden (horses, oxen, et al.) did not exist in the Americas. In addition, no people in the New World had any knowledge of the wheel. The building of these pyramids and other structures must have taken an awful toll on the people compelled into this work.
The Aztecs also engaged in slavery and had a religion which required them to continually offer fresh human blood to their war god, Huitzilopochtli. This involved regular and continuous human sacrifice with most of the victims obtained in their conquering of nearby peoples and a constantly expanding empire. It is estimated that in the dedication of their most impressive pyramid in Tenochtitlan in 1487, the Aztecs may have slaughtered as many as 20,000 people, according to historian Marshall C Eakin. It is true that the Spanish Conquistador Hernan Cortes was able to eventually conquer the Aztecs in 1521, killing as many as 100,000 in the process, with a force of 1,000 Spaniards, 80 horses, and 16 artillery pieces. However, it is also true that Cortes would never have succeeded if not for the tens of thousands of native Indian allies who fought alongside him only because of the brutal treatment they had received at the hands of the Aztecs.
The Incas built the most extensive empire in the Pre-Columbian Americas, imposing their language and religion on those they conquered in a society in which all property was in the hands of the small band of Inca rulers and everyone else was essentially a slave.
So, I wonder if Mr O’Farrell wants to celebrate these peoples and civilizations. Maybe, he just wants to celebrate native peoples in North America, like the Iroquois. Many Native American activists contend that the Iroquois and their Confederacy inspired our founders in the creation of our republic (although this is doubtful since the Iroquois, like the Inca, had no written language). Then again, Mr O’Farrell may not wish to celebrate the Iroquois, who were a militant and aggressive group, constantly making war against others. This was usually done in pursuit of wealth, such as the Beaver Wars, in which, among other things, the Iroquois decimated the Huron (also known as the Wyandotte — Mr. O’Farrell’s tribe) all just to gain control of the fur market.
Hmmm … possibly Mr. O’Farrell wishes to celebrate those Pacific tribes along the west coast. After all, he does mention Los Angeles in the above quote. Maybe tribes such as the Twana of northern Washington state, the Yurok of coastal California, the Pawnee of Oregon, or the Klamath of Southern Oregon. Then again, maybe not. Each of these tribes engaged in slavery, according to Harvard Sociology Professor Orlando Patterson in his work Slavery and Social Death.
So, maybe O’Farrell meant the Indian tribes of the plains and the east. Then again, maybe not. After all, the Creek of Georgia, Comanche of central Texas, and the Cherokee, among others, engaged in slavery. It is true, as this article discusses, that the form of slavery among these Native Americans was different than the chattel slavery employed by the European colonists. But that is small comfort to those so enslaved.
Maybe, just maybe, Mr. O’Farrell wishes to celebrate the fact that Native Americans lived closer to and in harmony with the earth. Then again, maybe not. Many Native Americans, especially in Central and South America engaged in slash and burn agriculture — hardly the most environmentally friendly activity.
The purpose of this essay is not to denigrate Native American people. They were and are an honorable and decent people. But they are no more moral than or superior to any other people, just as they are not any less moral or inferior to any other people. Each and every one of the Native Americans who first came into contact with Europeans and who would fight a losing battle to preserve their way of life against modernity was part of a tribal society of one sort or another. By my lights, tribal society is one of the worst forms of social organization. In the tribe, the individual is everywhere and always subsumed to the wishes and needs of the tribe. This tends to lead to perpetual misery and poverty and minimal technological progress.
In the Americas, especially North America, modernity in the form of Western Civilization won the battle against tribal society, and I, for one, am glad. Western Civilization, with its moral basis of a Judeo-Christian ethic, in which every human life has value and each individual is imbued with free will, has done more for human happiness and progress than other culture in human history.
Published in General
This is pathetic, but who is surprised? I don’t think they’ve thought this all the way through but, what was supposed to happen instead? Was it wrong to even set sail to discover the rest of the earth in the first place? When Columbus arrived, should he have just turned around and returned home, telling Spain not to bother since the land was already occupied? Did anyone even know about germs and contagious diseases? (No) Where are the boundaries of this sin drawn? I would love to hear responses to these questions, but I’m sure I’d just be disappointed. Long live Columbus and civilization.
Why does the Los Angeles City Council hate Hispanics?
If you don’t want holidays such as Christopher Columbus that is cool. Just shut it down. Just stop replacing it with stupid stuff that makes no sense.
Good article. Yes it’s another example of the insanity of the left. Columbus didn’t kill or conquer Indians he found Hispaniola. The conquering was left to others who had just conquered their own country back from the Moors, who were finally defeated in 1492. So lets blame it all on the Arabs.
This is all pre enlightenment. They were all easily conquered, especially the Incas because small pox had devastated them. If there are any statues to small pox we should tear them down. The Aztecs horrified the Spaniards because they were cannibals, but only the elite got the meat after the sacrifice.
Being hunter gathers the Indians in upper North America were in constant war with each other because that’s what hunter gathers do. That kind of economy is zero sum. But they were traders and would have adapted had the government not conquered them and put them in reservations. There is tragedy in the whole history as there always is. Jackson’s trail of tears displaced peaceful agricultural peoples. People can be really awful when they have the power to be so.
Our government had an army after the the Mexican American war with nothing to do and used it to make more war on the various tribes than was necessary. They’d have been absorbed as all primitive peoples eventually are. The Comanche’s had to be defeated however as they were so fierce they were killing off other tribes and almost stopped the western advancement. Then our government put all of them on reservations and cheated them, even the Crows who had been allies for the whole time and turned them into welfare dependents.
The romantization of the Indians which took place in Europe was part of the emergence of the thing that became the modern left. Columbus didn’t have anything to do with any of this, he just found the place and thought he had found Asia. The lesson is the same as always. People will eventually work things out, after much struggle, tragedy and error, but governments always abuse their power and seldom learn and when they try to fix what they have gotten wrong they make things worse. Can you imagine a crime worse than reservations and dependence?
Let’s see … according to UCLA’s short history of Los Angeles…
” when the first Mexican and Spanish settlers arrived, the basin was populated by the Cahuilla [Kaweah], Cupeño, Luiseño, and Serrano, speakers of Takic languages, a branch of Northern Uto-Aztec (see information from the La Jolla Band of Luiseno Indians and the language family index, both external). The Cahuilla in Riverside had a population of 10,000 in fifty towns. Other indigenous groups included the Kawengnam, Asuzangna, Topanga, Cucamongna, Tuhumgna, Maliwu, Simi, Kamulos, Kastic, Yangna, Suangna (see history, local), and Pasbengn”
If the LA City Council actually believes what they wrote, then it only seems fair that they undo their “Colombian-privilege” ( Did I just coin a term?) and abandon LA, returning it to the original indigenous owners. By their own logic, anything less makes them collaborators in the genocide. I challenge the LA City Council to lead by example and surrender their homes today!!!!
Chant along with me …”Columbus, No way! We’re giving back LA today!!!”
I love it! Thanks Ekosj.
Lesson from the anti-Columbus movement – you should not explore different places; you should not try to find new or different things; you should not try to interact with different people. Just stay where you were born and live with only what your immediate family has.
The more I think about it the more I don’t think I’m joking. They play be the Alinsky Rules. Fine. Turnabout is fair play. Alinsky rule #4:
“Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules”
OK. We should hold them to their own logic. They are the beneficiaries of Columbus’ genocide. Put up or shut up! If they believe their own schlock then they’d better act on it. The CA Republican Party ought’a have picketers outside each of their houses.
“LA Council – Reaping the rewards of genocide”
“Collaborators!!!”
“Vichy LA”
In other words . . .
Nutcracker of an essay, but the combination of deep group self-hatred and personal virtue megalomania is a tough nut to crack.
Not particularly new. I was listening to one of my favorite pretentious lefty Canadian a**wipes – Neal Young – and couldn’t help but chuckle. Of course, virtually all of his songs contain this childish level of insight, but “Cortez the Killer” is one of my favorite examples:
The music is nice, but good lord are those lyrics insane. But that’s the predominant leftist view. The utopia of “natives.” Of course, have you ever had a leftist friend travel to Europe and then talk about it upon return? I didn’t realize how amazing and perfect the whole rest of the world is once you get out of this veritable hell-hole that is the United States. Kind of funny, also, that Neal Young doesn’t seem to have ever seen a modern building or stadium or theater or…
Great info – thanks. Apropos of nothing except I found it interesting – a wheel was found in what is thought to have been an Aztec child’s toy. Speculation is without beasts of burden wheels are meaningless.
I live in LA – the education about local tribes and local history has been particularly poor. All the interesting stuff left out (like fire rings discovered that are thought to have guided canoes back from Catalina, and ancient Chinese anchors discovered); instead constant and boring trips to the Southwest Museum the requirement of dioramas to be built out of old shoe boxes.
Thanks Annefy. I think you have a point regarding beasts of burden and the wheel. But, there also other uses for the wheel – a pulley with rope would have been a great aid in building all those stone pyramids.
tiger,
I do believe that Western Civilization managed to get past human sacrifice long before Columbus stumbled upon a continent he wasn’t looking for. Even the truly brutal Cortez can only be described as liberating the indigenous people from a horrific tyranny. For those who prefer historical accuracy to political correctness here is a history book that any child will find interesting.
CAPTAIN CORTEZ CONQUERS MEXICO
Regards,
Jim
What would history be without war and conflict? Booor-ing. Lord, lefties are such joyless scolds.
Great post.
I’m grateful that I no longer live nor work in Los Angeles.
Well, according to Neil (quoted above), human sacrifice was a noble endeavor.
Young’s Pocahontas provides a more adult level of insight into the moral imagination of our show biz betters:
Native princess as groupie/prostitute.
I had no idea the Wyandottes were a Celtic tribe. And what is the supposed descendant of a Great Lakes Indian tribe doing in LA?
Thanks WC.
Hammer,
Perhaps Neil had taken too many drugs by the time he wrote the song. Perhaps Neil never had a brain in his head, to begin with, and was just one more piece of cultural flotsam and jetsam from the late 60s. Perhaps the capacity to excuse human sacrifice because of cultural diversity requires the moral tone deafness of a boa constrictor.
Neil is one of life’s little mysteries that I don’t have an answer for. Sorry.
Regards,
Jim
Good essay and thanks for the sad reminder. ;) Hard to believe Phoenix took this on before LA. Then again, we’re practically a CA suburb now. Just shaking my head at the turn of events.
A Southern man don’t need him around, anyhow.
Best protest is against Columbus, – show up for work on Columbus Day,
ignore the holiday
Simpler answer. He’s Canadian.
Next democrat president will eliminate Columbus day. I mean, will probably change the name to Indigenous People’s Day.
Thanks Laura. Yeah, LA was behind the curve on this. What I wonder about is all those cities on the east coast which have large Italian populations and each of which is run by Democrats. Will they join this stupidity? The lone vote on the LA City Council against was by a Democrat who is of Italian descent.
Oops – I forgot that Mayor De Blaisio wants to take NYC down this path. In addition to the Columbus statue, they aren’t ruling out removal of Grant’s Tomb. So, in addition to removing Confederate statues, we also need to remove the tomb of the man who defeated them on the battlefield because he also wasn’t a saint.
Agreed.
So then, why this?
Seems to Me that They were less decent, less moral, and, most obviously, inferior to Western Civilization.
I think that their culture was grossly inferior to Western Civilization. That doesn’t mean that their descendants are any less decent than any one else. Today, they should be judged on the merits just like everybody else.