Another Columbus Day, and another debate over colonization, historical grievances, and whether we should rename the holiday ‘Indigenous People’s Day’.
This argument has arisen each year since at least the 1990s. It is what the Japanese call a 水掛け論 (pronounced mizukakeron) or “endless debate”.
You’ve heard much of this before, so I’ll be brief.
The Native American experience with European settlers was not a monolithic one.
Some Native American tribes were fierce. In 1813, a large force of Creek Indians slaughtered over five hundred US civilians and militiamen near present-day Mobile, Alabama. This became known as the Fort Mims massacre.
The Comanche were cruel to both other Native American tribes and white settlers alike. The Plains Indians were also formidable fighters.
Other native tribes were rapidly subjugated.
Many (most) Native American tribes got raw deals once the shooting stopped. In many cases, the victors (the US government) altered the terms of the agreements retroactively.
But how to interpret the bigger picture–not through the lens of guilt-ridden 21st-century presentism–but in the larger context of world history?
Nations, after all, have been taking over other nations since the dawn of humankind.
Native American tribes won some battles. They often fought valiantly and resourcefully. But they ultimately lost a long civilizational war against European settlers and the US government.
Civilizational wars have been common throughout history: the Greeks vs the Persians, Islam vs the Christian west, Rome vs the Germanic tribes, etc.
We still have civilizational wars today. What else do you call the 45-year conflict between the USA and the Islamic Republic of Iran? The many wars between Israel and its Muslim Arab neighbors?
Civilizational wars have consequences. The victors usually decide to make some changes. When the Ottoman Empire completed its conquest of Byzantine [Christian] Constantinople in 1453, the city was renamed Istanbul. The Hagia Sophia Church was converted into a Muslim mosque. It is still a mosque today.
An unpleasant fact of history is that the victors also write the history books.
Suppose that the Continental Army had lost the American Revolution. Had that been the outcome, George Washington would have been hanged as a traitor. The American Rebellion of 1776 would be a footnote in the history of the British Empire. There would be no Washington D.C., no Washington State, and certainly no images of the defeated and disgraced revolutionary leader on our currency.
That’s also why today is Columbus Day. Not because Columbus was the most virtuous man in history, but because his voyage to the Americas is often seen as the start of European civilization in the Americas.
You don’t have to celebrate that if you don’t want to. You’re also free to wail about the evils of European civilization. But if you declare that to be your belief system, I’m going to ask you: When do you plan to move to Ethiopia or Afghanistan? These countries are almost completely free of European civilization. Make your actions consistent with your rhetoric. That’s all I’m asking.
The fate of the Native Americans is also relevant in the current immigration debate—both in the US and Europe.
I sometimes hear folks on the left declare that, in the context of our nation’s founding, all non-Native Americans were arguably “illegal immigrants”.
I agree, for what it’s worth.
The Native American tribes had no equivalent of ICE. The Native American tribes failed to protect their borders. (In most cases, they didn’t even establish borders.) As a result, they were eventually overwhelmed, and their cultures disappeared.
If the Native Americans had successfully barred every last European settler from setting foot here, the North American continent would still be theirs today.
Make of that what you will.
-ET