Whose History Matters?

Zinn Education Project - Teaching People's History

Whose History Matters? Students Can Name Columbus, But Most Have Never
Heard of the Taíno People

By Bill Bigelow

In 30 years of teaching, almost all my high school history students could name the fellow some say "discovered" America: Christopher Columbus. But none could name the people he supposedly discovered: the Taínos.

This erasure of huge swaths of humanity is a fundamental feature of the school curriculum, but also of the broader mainstream political discourse.

Young people, and the rest of us, become inured to the way in which certain people's lives don't count, the way in which the world is cleaved in two: between those who matter and those who don't. The "don't matter" people are the ones the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano called los nadies, the nobodies ---- "Who speak no languages, only dialects. Who have no religions, only superstitions. Who have no arts, only crafts."

Columbus wrote that the Taínos were "the best people in the world" ---- before he enslaved, colonized, and terrorized them.

As we work to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in our communities and schools, let's work to remember the people who were here first. Their lives mattered 500 years ago, and they matter today.

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"Whose History Matters? Students Can Name Columbus, But Most Have Never Heard of the Taíno People" is the newest article in the Zinn Education Project's If We Knew Our History series, posted at Common Dreams. You can help us reach a wider audience
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ABOLISH COLUMBUS DAY

With seven cities (including Lawton, Oklahoma, and South Fulton, Georgia) changing Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day this year, now is the time to add your school or city to the list for 2018.

Celebrating Columbus means celebrating colonialism, celebrating racism, celebrating genocide. It's time that instead we paid tribute to the people who were here first, who are still here, and who are leading the struggle for a sustainable planet.

Join the Zinn Education Project

in abolishing Columbus Day and celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day in our classrooms, our schools, our communities, and our country.

TEACHING RESOURCES

Columbus In America

We highly recommend the new film, Columbus in America . This documentary explores the history of what transpired in 1492 and after, and how "Columbus" has been used throughout U.S. history to legitimate the marginalization of Indigenous peoples. The film is ultimately hopeful, as it focuses on how the victims of Columbus and those who came after have themselves targeted "Columbus in America" to assert their humanity, their history, and their rights.