A Democrat lawmaker has proposed legislation to follow Durham, New Hampshire’s lead and change Columbus Day to ‘Indigenous People’s’ Day. I’ve already offered my thoughts on the matter at great length so I won’t repeat those here.
Instead, I will point out the most obvious foil. There are no Indigenous People in New Hampshire or anywhere else in North America.
There are only the people whose ancestors arrived before ours.
Ted Morgan, in Wilderness at Dawn – The Settling of the North American Continent, writes,
No race of man originated in the New World. The residents of our continent came over water or crossed a temporary land bridge from Asia. Each wave of people had a different reason for making the trip.
Some followed the food. Others would follow for commerce, glory, ambition, or just a little bit more freedom.
For thousands of years, those who journeyed before fought with those who came after. The ancestors of the survivors sought resources and battled each other when necessary. But none of them is from here.
The Durham resolution changing Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s day states that,
The designation will encourage residents to learn more about the legacy of Christopher Columbus and the ‘Doctrine of Discovery,’ while also recognizing the devastating effects of colonialism on indigenous peoples.”
That strikes me as a meaning with a very narrow purpose. Learn about the legacy of Columbus from a class of progressive with a European Colonialism – and its devastating effect – bug up their collective ass.
I doubt the lesson will include anything about a doctrine of any other people who displaced those who came before.
And it is unlikely that there will be any discussion of how Europeans discovery led to the first Constitutional Republic, a recognition of inalienable human rights, or the eventual abolition of slavery, something “Indigenous People’s” embraced for centuries (and in other parts of the modern world, still do).
The actual bill, HB 1604, states that,
It is the intent of the general court that Indigenous Peoples Day serve as a time for New Hampshire residents to reflect on the continuing struggles of the indigenous peoples of the Americas, including the Wabanaki (also known as People of the Dawn), who inhabited what is now known as New Hampshire for thousands of years before English settlers arrived in the 1620s.
What about the people that came to North America before them? Who did the ancestors of the Wabanaki fight and defeat on their long journey to what we now call New Hampshire? Why did they have to keep moving? What did they bring that wasn’t here before and from whom and from where did they bring it?
Everyone left something behind or brought something new, and while it is important to remember, recognize, and incorporate these, it does not change the fact that we are all descended from people who came from someplace else (even the same distant pool of goo if you prefer). We are all descended from settlers who arrived on different schedules with different degrees of tactics or technological advancement. And in every case, there were winners and losers.
At some point, one culture subsumed or replaced another. Such is the history of the entire world.
To be clear, I have no issue with recognizing the Wabanaki, of New Hampshire, for a day, a weekend, or a week, as long as we can do it without being accused of cultural appropriation. But Indigenous people’s day is a national movement lead almost exclusively by progressives that seek to glorify the history of some arbitrary previous winner so that liberals can feel a sense of moral superiority for recognizing the success of someone else’s ancestors in place of their own.
As I noted here, this is,
“… a philosophy about how we should conduct ourselves as a culture. These are the intellectual offspring of a worldview that has bias incidents, microaggressions, free speech zones, safe spaces, and an Office of Pluralism and Leadership where, when they are not counseling aggrieved members of the community they are whispering in the ears of local officials about how great it would be to rename the second Monday in October “Indigenous Peoples Day.”
At its root, this is about American culture being systematically conquered by the Marxist dogma of political correctness. And should they win, they won’t be honoring the America they replace on ‘Indigenous People’s Day.
