"Goodbye, Columbus?" by Robert Dvorchak in "Lancaster Sunday News" (October 13, 1991, p. 2) Whither Columbus? Explorer or evildoer? Discoverer or despoiler? Nearly five centuries after his epic 70-day voyage, this native of Italy and agent of Spain is at the center of a tricky cross-current equal to any encountered when he headed West to find East in 1492. Just consider some Columbus Day events this year. Replicas of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria departed Spain Oct. 12 on a journey retracing Columbus' Atlantic route. In the District of Columbia, a ceremony at the Columbus statue and a reception at the Columbus Club kicked off a year-long national observance. But at sunrise, in another corner of the nation's capital, an American Indian group known as the 1992 Alliance read the names of native tribes exterminated by sword or disease after Columbus landed. The memorial began what is called "The Year of the Indigenous Peoples." This time, it seems, the Indians are ready for Columbus, and they aren't laying down a welcome mat. "Indians had a lax immigration policy back then," said Suzan Harjo, national coordinator of the 1992 Alliance and a Cheyenne and Creek Indian. She offered this short history: "They came, we welcomed, they killed." Such are the sensitivities that the national Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission will commemorate, not celebrate, what is called an encounter, not a discovery. Some call it an invasion. Although Columbus died in relative obscurity, he is the world's best-known explorer. More pieces of America are named for him than anyone other than George Washington, including 47 cities and towns in the United States, plus universities, rivers, streets and plazas. But Columbus-bashers now blame him for genocide, slavery, colonialism, plunder of tons of gold and silver and environmental destruction. The National Council of Churches set aside 1992 as a year of repentance and reflection. The discovery of America, the organization asserted, brought "legalized occupation, genocide, economic exploitation and a deep level of institutional racism and moral decadence." Columbus "makes Hitler look like a juvenile delinquent," said Indian activist Russell Means. "The Spanish conquest must be repudiated. Celebrating it would be shameful and the justification of a massacre," said Ecuador Indian leader Manuel Castro. Indian groups are greeting the replicas of Columbus' caravels with protest canoes, sailing to Europe to discover Spain and grieving the loss of life and lands with periods of silence. Columbus' champions are pressing ahead with their celebrations. In addition to sponsoring an anniversary voyage that will end in San Francisco on Oct. 12, 1992, Spain is host to a world's fair. Italy also plans observances. But the anti-celebrations have sucked some of the wind from their sails. "These groups are seeking to associate Columbus with every ill that has beset the New World since it was introduced to the Old World," said Philip R. Piccigallo, executive director of the Order Sons of Italy in America. Some scholars see the 500th anniversary as an opportunity to tell the unvarnished story. Maybe it's time to discover Columbus. "The heat might lead to some light. No one holds the ultimate truth in this matter," said John Hebert of the Library of Congress. "Ultimately, the whole idea about the quincentennial is about America. We're all part of it." Leif Ericsson and the Vikings preceded Columbus. Discovery is a debatable choice of words; millions were already living on the lands they found, although Europeans and Indians were equally unaware the other existed. And Columbus blundered by thinking he was in Asia when he landed somewhere in the Bahamas. He named the new land San Salvador; the people living there called it Guanahani. What Columbus did was boldly sail a course that no man had sailed before. In the process, he irrevocably linked two worlds, willingly or unwillingly, that were separated by continental drift eons before. The world is still trying to sort out the consequences. "Basically, Columbus bumps into a strange place, calls the people he finds Indians, and tells them, 'Don't go away, I'll be right back.' Unfortunately for the Indians, he kept his word," said Herman Viola, director of the Columbus quincentenary at the National Museum of Natural History. Columbus actually made four trips to the new lands. He brought soldiers of fortune, horses, cows, pigs, sheep and some unwanted baggage: the black rat, measles, smallpox, diphtheria, the common cold and other European plagues the settlers gave to defenseless natives, who perished by the millions. The Spaniards didn't want them to die, which makes many scholars dispute the genocide charge. They hoped to enslave the natives to work the new sugar cane plantations, ventures that led to the first destruction of the rain forest. But when the natives died, African slaves were imported. Also part of the Columbus legacy is the change in world eating habits. Explorers introduced wheat and barley while discovering maize, potatoes, cocoa and tobacco. Imagine a world without popcorn, french fries and chocolate bars. "The essential thing about 1492 is that it was the first step in the unification of the globe," said Norman Fiering of the John Carter Brown Library, the only library in the world dedicated exclusively to the history of the Western Hemisphere. Just 60 years after Columbus' landfall, historian Francisco Lopez de Gomara called it "the greatest event since the creation of the world, excluding the incarnation and death of Him who created it." On past anniversaries, the trend was to name things after Columbus. In 1792, a fledgling republic named the home of its capital the District of Columbia. A century ago, New York erected a statue atop a pillar of Italian marble at a site named Columbus Circle off Columbus Avenue, and the composer Anton Dvorak honored Columbus with his "New World Symphony." The World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago was called "the jubilee of mankind." The 500th anniversary includes everything from an elaborate flower show in Columbus, Ohio, to Hollywood spectaculars, TV documentaries and tall-ship regattas. But the commemoration has not been without its problems. John Goudie, chairman of the congressionally created Christopher Columbus Quincentenary Jubilee Commission, resigned in December after questions were raised about finances and management. His replacement, James Kuhn, said plans are proceeding smoothly, and the way it sounds, gingerly. "We are commemorating the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the New World," Kuhn said. "What took place was an encounter, but that encounter happened to be one of the most important events of the last 500 years. That encounter led to many, many, many discoveries." The commission has a Native American Advisory Council, headed by Klamath Indian William Ray. He sees the quincentenary as a chance for Indians to tell their side of the story. "What Indian people want is a more equitable view of what happened. It wasn't all a great adventure," said Ray. "There are Indian tribes that no longer exist except in name. We want to honor those who did not make it." And the climactic sermon at Washington's National Cathedral on Oct. 12, 1992, will be delivered by Bishop Steven Charleston, a Choctaw Indian who is the leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Alaska. "1992 should be a time of very sincere and sober reflection for everyone," Charleston said. "The issue is not the captain, it's the cargo. To simply focus on Columbus is to miss the boat. We need to stop and ask hard, serious questions about what colonialism has cost all of us in human lives and in the environment over the last 500 years." Reprint permission granted by publisher and author.