Sean Lynn-Jones, Chair of the Advisory Committee
Janet Gelbart, Chair of the Personnel Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee
Town of Brookline
October 16, 2017
Re: Honor Indigenous Peoples by Changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples’ Day
Dear Members of the Brookline Advisory Committee,
We are writing to express our support for Warrant Article 20, under review by your committee on October 16th, 2017.
Cultural Survival is an Indigenous rights advocacy organization based in Cambridge, MA. Since 1972 we have been advocating for Indigenous Peoples' rights and supporting Indigenous communities’ self-determination, cultures and political resilience. We urge you to support the Columbus Day name change to Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the town of Brookline.
We believe that ending the veneration of Christopher Columbus is the right choice for the town of Brookline, which prides itself on being a respectful and safe place for people of all backgrounds and ethnicities. It’s important to note that Indigenous Peoples’ Day is not anti-Italian, but rather, is anti-Columbus.
We know from historical accounts that Christopher Columbus committed atrocities against the Indigenous Peoples he encountered starting in 1492. Columbus was a rapist and a murderer, he enslaved Native people for gold, he provided Native women as sex slaves to his men, Columbus’ men used Native people as dog food. Several accounts of cruelty and murder are part of the historical record and include testing the sharpness of blades on Native people by cutting them in half, beheading them in contests, throwing them into vats of boiling soap. Bartolome De Las Casas, a former slave owner who became Bishop of Chiapas, Mexico, described these atrocities, “Such inhumanities and barbarisms were committed in my sight as no age can parallel....My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature that now I tremble as I write.”
We must hear the vast number of Indigenous Peoples who tell us of the harm that celebrating Columbus continues to do to Indigenous communities, especially children. Shannon Speed, of the Chickasaw Nation is the Director of Native American and Indigenous Studies at UCLA shared her understanding of the issue in the movement leading the name change in Los Angeles: “For us, Columbus represents the setting in motion of the genocide of our people – the longest sustained genocide of the modern era. The denial of our history and the outright lies that accompany the celebratory narrative of Columbus create real psychological damage. This is particularly harmful to our children, forced to endure demeaning and false version of history regularly in the course of their public school education. Columbus Day is a form of symbolic violence that exacerbates intergenerational historic trauma for our peoples.” Indigenous Peoples are still fighting to have their history represented and to be acknowledged as thriving communities that make up this country.
Words and holidays we celebrate as a nation carry meaning and impact. Continuing to deny the colonial history of the United States and the atrocities committed to Indigenous Peoples impacts the way Indigenous Peoples are treated today. Native Americans are the racial group most affected by suicide, which is all linked to the inaccurate and racist representation of Indigenous Peoples in the media. Columbus Day and other forms of representation that normalize colonialism and genocide affect the mental health, well-being and self-esteem of Indigenous children and perpetuates the inaccuracies our children have been taught for centuries. A positive day at least once a year for Indigenous Peoples is one step that can be made to work towards accepting our true history and work towards true reconciliation.
Article 15 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states, “1. Indigenous Peoples have the right to the dignity and diversity of their cultures, traditions, histories and aspirations which shall be appropriately reflected in education and public information. 2. States shall take effective measures, in consultation and cooperation with the Indigenous Peoples concerned, to combat prejudice and eliminate discrimination and to promote tolerance, understanding and good relations among Indigenous Peoples and all other segments of society.” Adopting Indigenous Peoples’ Day is a small but significant step in combatting prejudice and promoting tolerance and good relations with Native Peoples of this land.
The celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day in Brookline schools will also present an opportunity to learn and understand about the factual history of colonization in the Americas, in a similar way that Brookline schools have done an excellent job in teaching the Holocaust. To be clear, Indigenous Peoples Day is not revisionist history; it is about dispelling the simplistic mythologies that we have failed to analyze in our public education system, and to fill the gaps regarding contemporary Indigenous cultures that exist in New England, across the US, and internationally.
Many cities, towns, and universities across the United States have voted to stop recognizing "Columbus Day" in favor of Indigenous Peoples' Day, shifting the holiday's focus from Columbus to the people he encountered in the New World and their modern-day descendants:
In 2017: Austin, TX; Bangor, ME; Brunswick, ME; Davenport, IA; Durham, NH, Ithaca, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Moscow, ID; Norman, OK; Oberlin, OH; Orono, ME; Portland, ME; Watsonville, CA; Tulsa, OK; Tahlequah, OK; Salt Lake City, UT; Burbank, CA; Long Beach, CA, Harvard University.
In 2016: Denver, CO; State of Minnesota; State of Vermont; University of Utah; Brown University; Cornell University; Ann Arbor, MI; Spokane, WA; Bainbridge Island; WA; East Lansing, MI; Santa Fe, NM; Phoenix, AZ; State of Alaska; Ypsilanti, MI; Durango, CO; Asheville, NC; Eugene, OR; Cambridge, MA; Boulder, CO; and Lawrence, KS.
In 2015: St. Paul, MN; Albuquerque, NM; Portland, OR; Oregon; Traverse City, MI; Akron/Newstead, NY; Olympia, WA, Village of Lewiston, NY; Anadarko, OK; Carrboro, NC; Belfast, ME; San Fernando, CA; Alpena, MI, Bexar County, TX.
We hope Brookline will join the vanguard of communities that are recognizing Indigenous Peoples’ Day, by deciding to change the name of Columbus Day in the town of Brookline to honor and celebrate the Peoples who were here first.
Thank you for your consideration.
Cultural Survival
