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Iowa State U. students protest Columbus Day
By Daniel C. Hartman
Iowa State Daily (Iowa State U.)
(U-WIRE)
AMES, Iowa - American Indians would like to set the record straight
about Christopher Columbus and his discovery of the New World
in 1492.
Irma White, adviser to the Iowa State University chapter of
the American Indian Rights Organization and program assistant
in minority student affairs, said "Columbus was lost"
when he discovered America.
"His idea was to find a new
route to India for trade," said White, a member of the
Winnebago Nation of Nebraska. "He missed his intended destination,
and we as native peoples have suffered for that ever since."
The American Indian Rights Organization
was behind a display outside the Memorial Union Monday, which
was Columbus Day, to inform passers-by of a different side to
the federal holiday. About five members were present.
White said Columbus tried to cover
up his error by naming the peoples of the new world "Indians."
"We are trying to get the
point across that we are indeed not Indians," White said.
"Instead of Indians, we would prefer to be called 'People
of the Earth.' It really behooves us as a people to say that
Columbus discovered us."
In many cases, the native people
were more advanced than the supposedly more civilized Europeans,
White said.
"We as a people were pretty
advanced by the time Columbus landed here. We had an advanced
civilization that was already well versed in things like agriculture,
architecture and medicine," she said.
Jeanne Ballanger, senior in animal
ecology and president of the American Indian Rights Organization,
said in terms of agriculture, American Indians were already
growing many of the things Europeans take credit for by the
time Columbus arrived.
"Potatoes are one crop that
comes to mind," Ballanger said. "Contrary to popular
opinion, the potato did not originate in Ireland."
Ballanger said the main point
she hoped people would take away from the display is that Columbus
did more harm than good. Her primary goal was to change the
way people look at the holiday.
For instance, Ballanger said there
was a letter Columbus sent back to the king and queen of Spain
about how kind the native people were. That letter also had
a dark side, she said.
"Columbus went on to describe
the natives as having no ambition and as not being very smart,"
Ballanger said. "Then he said they would make perfect slaves.
In fact, many of them were penned up and sent to back to Spain.
It was a terrible thing."
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