Thursday,
December 13, 2007
Comanche Joins Italians to Celebrate
Columbus Day in
The
ANNOTICO Report
Dr.
David A. Yeagly is an enrolled
member of the Comanche Nation,
Published in The Social Contract
Volume 17, Number 2 (Winter 2006-2007)
...The
Columbus Day Parade is once again alive and well in
In
celebration, I decided to go to
You
might wonder: whats a Comanche Indian doing at a parade celebrating the
man who brought
But
I say the real question is: why blame
The
Taino were fascinated with the white, bearded
foreigners and their odd clothing. After all, the Taino
wore nothing. And the Taino had no disposition of
fear or mistrust.
The name "Taino" (tah-ee-no) was, in the language of the natives, their
word for "good," or "noble." Supposedly, the Taino consciously eschewed violence and war. Apparently
thats why they migrated north, away from their Arawak
relatives of
In fact, Im rather fascinated with the vision
of
I
thought Id make a trip to
While
I was there, I learned how deeply older Italians feel about the
Well,
I made sure at least
I
feel the protest against
There
were three representatives from the Transform Columbus Day Alliance in the
audience (all non-Indian ....of course). I sincerely appealed to their personal
lives. "Which of you has experienced anything of the grandeur, the
magnificence, inspiration, the glory, of anything remotely comparable to that
{accomplishment] of Christopher Columbus?"
They
were of course, silent. (Afterwards, the Honorary Vice Consul of Italy, Maria Scordo Allen who was present at the press conference told
me she had never heard such a perspective before.) I wanted these protesters to
see how truly small they appear in reality.
I
also questioned them about the effects of their perspective. "Have you
considered the effect of your prolonged resentment on young people?" I
told them that their negative world view was pernicious. Nothing stifles the
natural aspirations of young people than a negative approach to life. Nothing
is so crippling to their natural ambitions than a hateful attitude toward
life-in the guise of historical justice.
Riff-Raff
Radical Opposition
As
the "discussion" continued, I heard one of them pronounce platitudes
straight from the Communist Manifesto.... So the news media seized the opportunity
to declare that the discussion denigrated into "name calling." (The
opponents called me "racist.")
Interestingly,
no American Indian Movement representatives, like Ward Churchill
or Glenn Morris, condescended to appear at the press conference. I think
it is terribly important that we Indians dissociate ourselves from anti-white,
anti-American liberal social upheavals. We have enough problems to overcome
without associating ourselves with marginal academic riff-raff.
The
Italians told me later that the news reports were surprisingly fair,
considering those of recent years. That sad fact made me shudder a bit, because
I felt some major points were missed, and I was definitely misrepresented in
the Rocky Mountain News. I blogged,
several times, about my Columbus Parade support, before and after the press
conference.
But
one glorious fact remains after all this: the Columbus Day Celebration is
back......
Dr. David A. Yeagley is an enrolled member of the
Comanche Nation,
The
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