I’m glad you mentioned his legacy, @realDonaldTrump, let’s talk about it. Columbus described the people he encountered in the lands we now call Haiti and the Dominican Republic as “very well formed, with handsome bodies and good faces.” They would make “good and intelligent... https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump/status/1316011746973286400

... servants.” He also said they were “very gentle and do not know what evil is.” The “noble savage” trope took birth in such early depictions, as Columbus and his explorer buddies fancied themselves Christian heroes bringing the blessings of religion and “civilization.”

He made a second voyage to “Hispaniola” in 1493, intending to colonize the lands he claimed to have discovered, despite the fact that north, central and South America had already been well populated for thousands of years.

Before 1492, the people of these lands had never experienced so much as a seasonal cold or flu, let alone smallpox, cholera, measles or bubonic plague. The population of pre-contact “Hispaniola” is estimated at 8 million. By 1535 it’s native peoples were nearly extinct.

Waves of disease swept through indigenous communities in the post-contact Americas, with fatality rates commonly reaching 90 percent. Many indigenous populations were decimated by diseases that arrived via tribal trade routes, before they’d ever even seen a white person.

This biological devastation combined with the harmful impacts of non-native plants and animals brought by the Europeans (which altered Native hunting/gathering/farming techniques forever) to significantly diminish Native capacity to resist colonial violence.

Estimates of Native population loss in North, Central and South America are as high as 89% for the period between 1492 and 1650. Forced migration and increased warfare also contributed to the massive loss of life that Columbus initiated.

European colonists and their descendants have deliberately conspired to destroy Native peoples for centuries. Columbus stands at the head of a legacy of murder, rape, human trafficking, theft, broken treaties, exploitation and epistemicide.

Spain, who wrote Columbus’s paychecks, was hands-down the most violent colonial power in the “New World.” Spanish conquistadors were legally required to read the “Requerimiento” to the Natives wherever they went, despite the fact that they did not speak the Spanish language.

Written in 1513, the Requerimiento required Natives to “acknowledge the Church as the Ruler and Superior of the whole world” and accept the pope and king and queen of Spain as their rulers.

The penalty for not accepting the terms of the Requerimiento:

@realDonaldTrump this is all fresh in my mind thanks to the awesome Native American History class I’m taking at @SJCityCollege this semester. I could go on and on about why #ColumbusDayIsCanceled and why EVERY day needs to be #IndigenousPeoplesDay.

But I’ll leave it at this: the real heroes of these lands are the people who have survived centuries of horrific loss and destruction, yet continue to unite in prayerful solidarity to organize for a brighter future. You’re just another link in the colonial chain. Your time is up.