Should Columbus day be replaced with Leif Erikson day?

[mark46]

If they're not, who would be? Every place on the Earth didn't have humans before humans got there.

choose a date and any of can give an answer.

 

[mark46]

Immigrants is not interchangeable with settlers.

And the people that traveled across the Bering Strait land bridge are not settlers, they did not leave Asia to settle North America, they were a nomadic society that traveled into North America and maintained their traditional way of life (of course evolving over time).

BTW, considering those who crossed the land bridge as "first" does not seem to be the latest science. It is much more likely that these peoples came by boat, move down the coast (some believe to California and beyond). DNA research is doing a very interesting job in explaining these issues.

 

[SummerMadness]

I believe the distinction between immigrants and settlers is settlers come to create something when nothing is there (debatable since people have lived in the Americas for thousands of years, but from the perspective of a European-style civilization, non exists). Immigrants are people coming to an established society.

I think where I draw the distinction for settler versus indigenous is that if you truly were the first to establish something in a region and build a culture/civilization in that region, then you're indigenous to that region. I think how long you've inhabited that region also plays a part, thousands of years certainly is long. I guess the argument then becomes whether the civilizations you find were truly the first and not simply conquerors that stamped out the "true" indigenous people. My attitude, until you have evidence support that, I say leave the unicorn army out of it.

 

[Audacious]

I would rather we have almost any conceivable day other than Columbus Day, given that Columbus was a psychopathic, murderous, brutal, slave-owning individual. His proper awfulness cannot be expressed without certain words that are banned on CF.

Indigenous People's Day sounds nice. Let's do that instead of celebrating an evil murderer.

 

[mark46]

I'm a bit confused.

I'm from NY. We'd always been taught that the Iroquois Confederacy was a civilization and society well worth our respect and study. My friends in MA were taught about those of the culture of the first Thanksgiving. Certainly, there was a culture and society already here. Certainly, there were cultures in South America that we destroyed by the Spanish and Portuguese. It seems clear that those who can to the US, central and south America were immigrants.

I would call the Erikson and his family settlers. Their Christian bishop would likely think so. I don't know how many Inuit there were in Greenland, but I think that the Norse genuinely settled land.

Unfortunately, there probably are three categories: settlers, immigrants, and conquerors. Settlers settle where there was very little and develop. Immigrants come to a developed society, and assimilate or at least live together with the prior civilization. Conquerors take from the existent culture and often destroy their culture. IMHO, it is pretty clear what Queen Isabella's folks (and those that followed) came here to do.

I believe the distinction between immigrants and settlers is settlers come to create something when nothing is there (debatable since people have lived in the Americas for thousands of years, but from the perspective of a European-style civilization, non exists). Immigrants are people coming to an established society.

I think where I draw the distinction for settler versus indigenous is that if you truly were the first to establish something in a region and build a culture/civilization in that region, then you're indigenous to that region. I think how long you've inhabited that region also plays a part, thousands of years certainly is long. I guess the argument then becomes whether the civilizations you find were truly the first and not simply conquerors that stamped out the "true" indigenous people. My attitude, until you have evidence support that, I say leave the unicorn army out of it.

 

[Armoured]

Why not St Brendan's Day? Or "Egyptian-guy-who-we-dont-know-the-name-of-but-how-else-do-you-explain-cocaine-in-mummys-smarty-pants?" Day?

 

[Shiloh Raven]

I would rather we have almost any conceivable day other than Columbus Day, given that Columbus was a psychopathic, murderous, brutal, slave-owning individual. His proper awfulness cannot be expressed without certain words that are banned on CF.

Indigenous People's Day sounds nice. Let's do that instead of celebrating an evil murderer.

As a descendant of both the Cherokee and the Choctaw, I commemorate Indigenous People's Day on Columbus Day. I never honor or show any kind of respect for Christopher Columbus.

 

[Rubiks]

I hope everyone is having a happy Lief Erikson day!

 

[cow451]

I hope everyone is having a happy Lief Erikson day!

Hug a Viking!