


The Gypsy Scholar presents the Orphic Essay-with-Soundtrack,
Columbus Day vs. Indigenous People's Day:
Goodbye Columbus!





Thematic Images for Autumn Season Indigenous Peoples Day



Indigenous Peoples Day is celebrated on the second Monday of October, which is in autumn.
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One With The Golden Sky (Dudash)
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Spirit Tipi (Idol)










Thematic Images for Columbus Day
vs. Indigenous Peoples Day















Thematic Images for Columbus' Enslavement of Indigenous Peoples

Columbus First Voyage Departure for New World (8/3/1492)

Columbus Landing in New World (10/12/1492)

Columbus Landing in New World (10/12/ 1492)

Columbus Taking Possession Of The New Country

Columbus at Hispaniola


The Landing of Columbus in America 1492
Spaniards buying Native American slaves










When Christopher Colombus accidently discovered the "New World" in 1492, it was estimated there were around 6 million Native Americans living across the continent. (Some argue there were many more, upwards of 20 million.) But the white settlers brought with them a host of European plagues that were new to them, such as smallpox, measles and syphilis. The native population had no immunity to these diseases. In addition to the ravages of disease, other factors compounded their fate; warfare, forced migration, outright slaughter and a massive white land grabs for settler colonialists. By 1900 the Native American population had been reduced to around 250,000 people.
Christopher Columbus discovered a Caribbean island which he called Hispaniola, meaning "Little Spain." He set foot on what is now Haiti on December 6, 1492, shortly after his first landfall at Watling Island in the Bahamas. The recorded history of Haiti began on December 5, 1492, when Columbus landed on a large island in the region of the western Atlantic Ocean that later came to be known as the Caribbean. It was inhabited by the Taino and Arawakan people, who variously called their island Ayiti, Bohio, and Kiskeya (Quisqueya). Columbus promptly claimed the island for the Spanish Crown, naming it La Isla Española (“The Spanish Island”), later Latinized to Hispaniola.
Columbus planned to conquer and colonize all the Caribbean islands and the mainland. The islands were populated by over a million Taino Indians, peaceful farmers and fishermen. Unable to find enough gold to finance his schemes, Columbus captured thousands of Tainos and shipped them to the slave markets of Spain. The Tainos resisted with fishbone-tipped spears, but these were no match for artillery. Columbus demanded that each Taino pay a tribute of gold dust every three months, under penalty of amputation of the hands. In two years over a hundred thousand Tainos were dead, and the survivors were slaves in the mines and plantations. Therefore, to the indigenous peoples of the Americas the real history behind the myth of Columbus Day comes down to this: Columbus personally invented European imperialism in the Americas and initiated the transatlantic slave trade.

Columbus encountering Taino Arawak people in Ayti, Hispaniola





History Lesson About Columbus & Columbus Day
The Long-term Effects of Columbus' Colonization Project