Oct. 10 (UPI) — In advance Monday’s holiday, the White House this week released a statement celebrating Columbus Day and singing the praises of the maligned explorer.
“This Columbus Day, we honor his life with reverence and gratitude, and we pledge to reclaim his extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue from the left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory,” the release said. Columbus Day is celebrated Monday.
In recent years, activists have called for Columbus Day to be renamed Indigenous People’s Day. About 10 states have officially recognized the day, sometimes with different names, such as American Indian Heritage Day or Native Americans’ Day.
Though he has been widely considered the person who discovered America, he never set foot on North American land. The Oct. 12 holiday actually commemorates the day he landed in the Bahamas. Also, he couldn’t discover a land that was already inhabited.
Norse explorer Leif Eriksson is the first European believed to have sailed to North America. He landed in Canada 500 years earlier than Columbus’ voyage.
Though the White House press release doesn’t say the Italian explorer landed in America, it calls Columbus a “true American hero.”
“Outrageously, in recent years, Christopher Columbus has been a prime target of a vicious and merciless campaign to erase our history, slander our heroes, and attack our heritage,” the release said. “Before our very eyes, left-wing radicals toppled his statues, vandalized his monuments, tarnished his character, and sought to exile him from our public spaces. Under my leadership, those days are finally over — and our Nation will now abide by a simple truth: Christopher Columbus was a true American hero, and every citizen is eternally indebted to his relentless determination.”
The reality is that Columbus enslaved native peoples, and he brutally attacked and killed those who tried to revolt. He took the native Taino “Indians” in the Caribbean back to Spain and sold them into slavery. To prevent rebellion, he would have the bodies of those he killed paraded through the streets of what is now the Dominican Republic.
“They were very well built, with very handsome bodies and very good faces,” Columbus wrote in his diary. “They do not carry arms or know them. … They should be good servants.”
Also, because the native population was not immune to European diseases, many died of illnesses like smallpox. When Columbus arrived on the island of Hispaniola (now Dominican Republic and Haiti) there were about 250,000 native people there. By 1517, only about 14,000 were left.
“This Columbus Day, more than 500 years since Columbus arrived in the New World, we follow his example, we echo his resolve, and we offer our gratitude for his life of valor and grit,” the White House’s release said. “Above all, we commit to restoring a Nation that once again dares to tame the unknown, honors our rich cultural inheritance, and offers rightful praise to our Creator above.”
The Spanish crown eventually stripped Columbus of his governorship of Hispaniola when it learned of his abuses. He admitted to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that the accusations were true.