Letter: Change the purpose of Columbus Day

Editor’s note: This letter is one of many shared by students from a class at Prairie Ridge High School in Crystal Lake.

I am writing to inform you that Columbus Day, which falls on Monday, Oct. 10, should be changed to Indigenous People’s Day. Columbus Day should not be celebrated, because Christopher Columbus didn’t “discover” America.

According to an article by Business Insider, prior to Columbus arriving in America, there were “more than 60 million indigenous populations’' living in the Americas. The article also explains how more than 100 years later, there were only 6 million people living in the Americas. Furthermore, Russel Means and Glenn Morris, two leaders of the American Indian Movement, explain how, upon Columbus’s arrival in modern day Haiti, the Indigenous people immediately assisted him and welcomed him. Columbus had the opportunity to appreciate and embrace this kindness, but instead choose to begin renaming their land, slaughtering their people and ruining their societies.

Some people may believe Columbus should be celebrated because his arrival in the Americas modernized society, but the Indigenous groups already living in the Americas had high-functioning and complex societies. These leaders of the American Indian Movement continue to explain how “the Western Hemisphere was a virtual ecological and health paradise prior to 1492.″ This proves that the Indigenous people living in modern day Haiti were not waiting for someone to come and change their systems and culture.

Columbus Day should be changed to Indigenous People’s Day.

Beatrice Nott

Crystal Lake