Oct. 12 is recognized as Columbus Day, the date on which explorer Christopher Columbus landed on San Salvador, changing the course of human civilization. Yet, if you followed many Democrats on social media — and sadly, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) — you’d think it was the made-up holiday perpetuated by left-wing politicians and Howard Zinn acolytes recognizing Native Americans. Democrats call it “Indigenous Peoples’ Day,” a day specifically created to replace Columbus Day because of Columbus’s alleged sins, under the guise of honoring Native American history and heritage, while ignoring and omitting the sins and wrongdoings of indigenous people.
Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) ignored Columbus Day and made a social media post honoring the fake “Indigenous Peoples’ Day.” So, too, did Democratic Senate candidate Abdul el Sayed; the elected official oblivious to massive Somali fraud in his state, Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN); Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL); former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA); Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI); Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ); Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI); and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA), among many other Democratic members of Congress.
The attempt to erase Columbus Day from American society is because the Left wants to destroy an American tradition and disparage a hero of Western civilization, yet another historical figure of European descent, or a “white man,” as Democrats regularly like to say. It is ironic, however, because the Democrats’ attempted eradication of Columbus is predicated on the left-wing historical revisionist belief that he was a purveyor of genocide and slavery. However, if genocide and slavery are societal ills that warrant forfeiting historical recognition, that standard should also apply to indigenous people and Native American civilizations the Democrats rush to celebrate so enthusiastically.
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While it is fashionable to denounce Columbus for his alleged crimes, history has proved that indigenous people and Native American civilizations in the Americas were brutally murdering, raping, pillaging, and enslaving each other long before any human being of European descent set foot on the continent. For hundreds of years, these indigenous people, including Native Americans, committed some of the worst murders and genocides in world history, savagely attacking neighboring tribes and people throughout the Western Hemisphere, all for the glory of conquest. Much scholarship and research have been dedicated to the topic.
Native American civilization was ‘the most violent era’
Harvard scholar Steven Pinker, in his seminal work, The Better Angels of Our Nature, found that the people whom Democrats celebrate on Indigenous Peoples’ Day lived in societies that were “far more violent than our own.” Analyzing information through the use of archaeological research, skeletal forensic data, and other studies, Pinker found that the number of people who died violently in indigenous cultures was substantially higher on a per-capita basis than in some of the 20th century’s worst genocides.
Archaeologist Tim Kohler found that indigenous cultures lived in the “most violent era,” specifically noting the violent carnage among the ancient Pueblo Indians of the central Mesa Verde region of southwest Colorado. Kohler revealed that “nearly 90% of human remains from that period had trauma from blows to either their heads or parts of their arms.”
“If we’re identifying that much trauma, many were dying a violent death,” Kohler said.
‘The dogs of war were seldom on a leash’
Among the most recognized indigenous barbaric atrocities were those committed by the Aztecs. Contemporary revelations of their culture of murdering innocent people for human sacrifice came to light in studies and research in the late 20th century as further evidence of the harrowing violence present in indigenous cultures — the kind of violence and murder for which Democrats demonize Columbus. The Aztecs regularly conquered other tribes living in proximity to build their vast empire. In doing so, they pillaged, raped, and enslaved.
Other scholarship shares such sentiments about a violent indigenous world. Historian and former Harvard professor Bernard Bailyn described indigenous society before interaction with Europeans as “not a terribly peaceful world. They were always involved in warfare.” Separately, in War Before Civilization: The Myth of the Peaceful Savage, renowned anthropologist Lawrence Keeley studied Native American societies. His description was that during this time, “the dogs of war were seldom on a leash.”
The other warring tribes of Indigenous Peoples’ conquest
In the Great Lakes region, the Hudson Valley, and the northeastern woodlands of North America, multiple tribes engaged in feuds and conflicts with one another. Before the formation of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, and sometimes even after, tribes such as the Mohawk, Oneida, and Seneca were regularly warring, raiding, pillaging, and feuding with one another and with other indigenous tribes in the region.
Out west, the Chippewa conquered the Sioux and forced them into exile from what is currently Minnesota. Later, the Sioux attacked and massacred the Pawnee, the Kiowa, and the Omaha, establishing a violent dominance in what is now known as the Midwest. It is perhaps for this reason that the word “Sioux” had multiple meanings, including “snake” and “enemy.”
The Blackfoot were constantly causing chaos and violence across the Great Plains. Through their own imperialist forces, they created a vast military empire spanning “Saskatchewan through Alberta down to Montana and the Upper Missouri River.”
The false narrative of peaceful Native American culture
Simply put, the narrative of the “peaceful Native American” is hogwash and ideological propaganda advanced by people invested in discrediting white men, Europeans, and Western civilization. They were no more or less violent than any other civilization and society in human history. They engaged in the same evils and societal ills that Democrats villainize Columbus for committing.
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Native Americans and indigenous cultures were just as bloodthirsty and yearned for conquest just like every other civilization. They sought power and dominance just as the Europeans arriving in America did. They murdered, raped, and pillaged, just as Genghis Khan’s Golden Horde did. They invaded and enslaved the same way Africa’s Ashanti and Zulu empires did. They sought power and prestige and amassed territories, just as the Roman and Greek civilizations did.
Native Americans and indigenous peoples have all the same warts, ugliness, and sins as Columbus. If their wrongdoings can be ignored, omitted, and overlooked, so, too, should those of Columbus. Doing so makes the purpose of trying to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day moot.
If Native Americans want their own day of recognition, there should not be any objections. Just make sure it is any day on the calendar other than Oct. 12. This way, Democrats can start telling the truth for once about the culture of indigenous peoples.