8 Myths and Atrocities About Christopher Columbus and Columbus Day   
      
      
      
   Vincent Schilling   
      
      
      
   10/14/13   
      
      
      
      
   On the second Monday of October each year, Native Americans cringe at the   
   thought of honoring a man who committed atrocities against Indigenous Peoples.   
      
   Columbus Day was conceived by the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic Fraternal   
   organization, in the 1930s because they wanted a Catholic hero. After   
   President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the day into law as a federal holiday   
   in 1937, the rest has been    
   history.   
      
   In an attempt to further thwart the celebration of this "holiday," we at ICTMN   
   have outlined eight misnomers and bloody, greedy, sexually perverse and   
   horrendous atrocities committed by Columbus and his men.   
      
   On the Way--Columbus Stole a Sailor's Reward    
      
   After obtaining funding for his explorations to reach Asia from the seizure   
   and sale of properties from Spanish Jews and Muslims by order of King   
   Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, Columbus headed out to explore a new world with   
   money and ships.   
      
   Brimming with the excitement of discovering new land, Columbus offered a   
   reward of 10,000 maravedis or about $540 (a sailor's yearly salary) for the   
   first person to discover such land. Though another sailor saw the land in   
   October 1492, Columbus    
   retracted the reward he had previously offered because he claimed he had seen   
   a dim light in the west.   
      
      
   Replicas of the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria in the North River, New York. They   
   crossed from Spain to be present at the World's Fair at Chicago. (Andrews, E.   
   Benjamin. History of the United States, volume V. Charles Scribner's Sons, New   
   York. 1912/   
   Wikimedia)   
      
   Replicas of the Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria in the North River, New York. They   
   crossed from Spain to be present at the World's Fair at Chicago. (Andrews, E.   
   Benjamin. History of the United States, volume V. Charles Scribner's Sons, New   
   York. 1912/   
   Wikimedia)   
      
   Columbus Never Landed on American Soil--Not in 1492, Not Ever   
      
   We're not talking about the Leif Ericson Viking explorer story.  We mean   
   Columbus didn't land on the higher 48--ever. Columbus quite literally landed   
   in what is now known as the Bahamas and later Hispaniola, present-day Haiti   
   and the Dominican Republic.   
      
   Upon arrival, Columbus and his expedition of weapon laden Spaniards met the   
   Arawaks, Tainos and Lucayans--all friendly, according to Columbus' writings.   
   Soon after arriving, Columbus wrecked the Santa Maria and the Arawaks worked   
   for hours to save the    
   crew and cargo.   
      
   Impressed with the friendliness of the native people, Columbus seized control   
   of the land in the name of Spain. He also helped himself to some locals. In   
   his journal 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."   
      
   RELATED: American History Myths Debunked: Columbus Discovered America   
      
      
   The four voyages of Columbus are shown here. (Wikimedia Commons)   
      
   The four voyages of Columbus are shown here. (Wikimedia Commons)   
      
   Columbus Painted a Horrible Picture of Peaceful Natives   
      
   When Columbus first saw the Native Arawaks that came to greet him and his crew   
   he spoke with a peaceful and admiring tone.   
      
   "They ... brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other   
   things... They willingly traded everything they owned...  They were   
   well-built, with good bodies and handsome features.... They do not bear arms,   
   and do not know them, for I    
   showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of   
   ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane... . They would   
   make fine servants.... With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make   
   them do whatever we want."   
      
   After several months in the Caribbean, on January 13, 1493 two Natives were   
   murdered during trading. Columbus, who had otherwise described the Natives as   
   gentle people wrote "(they are) evil and I believe they are from the island of   
   Caribe, and that they    
   eat men." He also described them as "savage cannibals, with dog-like noses   
   that drink the blood of their victims."   
      
   The cannibal story is taught as fact in some of today's schools.   
      
   Columbus' Men Were Rapists and Murderers   
      
   On Columbus's first trip to the Caribbean, he later returned to Spain and left   
   behind 39 men who went ahead and helped themselves to Native women. Upon his   
   return the men were all dead.   
      
   With 1,200 more soldiers at his disposal, rape and pillaging became rampant as   
   well as tolerated by Columbus.   
      
   This is supported by a reported close friend of Columbus, Michele de Cuneo who   
   wrote the first disturbing account of a relation between himself and a Native   
   female gift given to him by Columbus.   
      
   "While I was in the boat I captured a very beautiful Carib woman, whom the   
   said Lord Admiral gave to me, and with whom, having taken her into my cabin,   
   she being naked according to their custom, I conceived desire to take   
   pleasure. I wanted to put my    
   desire into execution but she did not want it and treated me with her finger   
   nails in such a manner that I wished I had never begun. But seeing that (to   
   tell you the end of it all), I took a rope and thrashed her well, for which   
   she raised such unheard    
   of screams that you would not have believed your ears. Finally we came to an   
   agreement in such manner that I can tell you that she seemed to have been   
   brought up in a school of harlots."   
      
   Several accounts of cruelty and murder include Spaniards testing the sharpness   
   of blades on Native people by cutting them in half, beheading them in contests   
   and throwing Natives into vats of boiling soap. There are also accounts of   
   suckling infants    
   being lifted from their mother's breasts by Spaniards, only to be dashed   
   headfirst into large rocks.   
      
   Bartolome De Las Casas, a former slave owner who became Bishop of Chiapas,   
   described these exploits. "Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in   
   my sight as no age can parallel," he wrote. "My eyes have seen these acts so   
   foreign to human nature    
   that now I tremble as I write."   
      
   Columbus Enslaved the Native People for Gold   
      
      
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