"Indians discover Columbus '92 not to their liking" by: Mark Beach Sunday New Staff Writer in: Sunday News, Lancaster (June 10, 1990, p. B1) Did Christopher Columbus, the Admiral of the Ocean Sea, discover America in 1492, ushering in an "age of discovery?" or, was it the Arawak people of the Caribbean Islands when, discovering a somewhat befuddled and disoriented Columbus, inadvertently beckoned the beginning of the end for the con- tinent's Indian cultures, bringing instead an "age of conquest?" These questions, sure to be vigorously debated as 1992 and the 500th anniversary of Columbus' landing approached, have present day Indians questioning the appropriateness of the upcoming anniversary. "I don't see why they make such a big deal of it in the first place," said William Walksalong, sociologist and member of the northern Cheyenne from southwest Montana. During his youth, Walksalong with many others on his reservation wore a black arm band on Columbus Day. "I just see Columbus as a lost adventurer, simply as that," he continued. "We can build him up to be a great man, or on the other side we can see that he is the symbol of white man's oppression." Walksalong was part of a group of Indians who recently visited the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) offices in Akron, where they and others from various Mennonite agencies, discussed steps to challenge commonly held assumptions about Columbus. The Quincentenary is being considered a "teachable moment," allowing for another side of the Columbus story to be told. "In my formal schooling I was only taught one side of the history. It was always seen from the European side," said Larry Haskie, a Navajo from Blue Gap, Ariz. The Mennonite group will present its goals to the "Columbus '92" group that will meet at the Mennonite World Conference this summer in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Using art, drama, video, poetry and tribal gatherings they hope to disseminate information presenting an alternative view of the Columbus story. No less than the Congress of the Unites States has commis- sioned the U.S. Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission to spearhead a year of official celebrations. Even NASA is getting into the act, firing three solar powered "space caravels," named Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, across the celes- tial ocean toward Mars. Governments of Spain and Portugal, as well as Latin America, are committing resources and making plans to celebrate the quincentenary. Constructing replicas of the original Columbus ships, Spain plans to retrace the famous voyage, with port calls in the U.S., Caribbean and Central America. "I think that there are a lot of myths connected with the so-called 'discovery of America'," said Lawrence Hart, a soft- spoken Mennonite pastor and Cheyenne from Clinton, Okla. "I have three children and I remember on two occasions when they were in school, they came home that day, Oct. 12. They had learned that Columbus had discovered America. Their question was 'daddy what about us?'." "For some it is a day of celebration, while others it is a day of lamentation," said Thomas C. Tirado, speaking of the mixed reaction the Quincentenary has received. Tirado, a history professor at Millersville University, has been researching Columbus and the Age of Discovery for the past 25 years. Columbus, writing in his journals in 1492, described the Indians he met as "well built and handsome." "They would make good servants," he said, "with 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." According to Columbus the Arawak greeted him with "parrots, balls of cotton and many other things." "They willingly traded everything they owned," Columbus reported. "They are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it." After reporting his discovery to the Spanish monarchy, Columbus returned to the Arawak with an armada of 17 ships and 1,200 men. Subduing the Indians and placing many in chains, he and his followers opened the first chapter in the long and ugly Atlantic slave trade. Arawaks were taken to the slave markets in Seville, Spain where they were dragged naked through the streets. "I think we need to figure out what was wrong with the Columbus event, what was wrong with the voyage," said David Shrock-Shank, global education coordinator for MCC. "We sort of have the idea that Columbus landed and, here were woods, there were a few people who hunted in the woods." The fact is the land stretching from Terra del Fuego to the Bering Straits was widely populated with hundreds of tribes, such as the Incas, Mayans, Aztecs, Cheyenne and Hopi. It is believed 25 million Indians lived in central Mexico, and nine million Arawaks lived throughout the Caribbean islands when Columbus landed. "That the New World was thoroughly populated is accepted now by historians," said Tirado. "There were nations of 10 to 20 million people and larger," he added. By 1532, 40 years after Columbus sailed, the Arawaks had been virtually wiped out through slavery, war and disease. The land once inhabited by the seafaring Arawaks is today home to the ancestors of former African slaves brought by the European slave traders. "We, Europeans, did not deal honorably to the people who said, 'all right we'll share the land.' It wasn't sharing, it was a takeover," explained Menno Weibe, director of the MCC Canada Native Concerns office. Weibe has spent the past 27 years working with Indians throughout Canada. "The teachable moment would be to hold a mirror to our- selves," explained Weibe. "It's the native people who will help us see ourselves." "When my children asked, what about us, that presents a teachable moment," said Hart. "You certainly have to counter the kinds of celebrations that are being planned." "I've looked at this issue inside and out," Walksalong explained. "I just don't want it to happen again, that we become objects, savages. I don't want that to happen ever again." BEACH-01.ART