No Indigenous Peoples Day For You!

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In what is one more in a thousand horrific moves to wipe out equality and dignity for US citizens, President Donald J. Trump has signed a proclamation celebrating Columbus Day. It’s part of his effort to “reclaim” what he calls the colonialist explorer’s “extraordinary legacy of faith, courage, perseverance, and virtue.” Rather than endorsing a person whom we now know enslaved others, many US states, instead, commemorate Indigenous Peoples Day as a way to recognize Native land and to respect the contributions of Native Americans to the hemisphere.

The Trump proclamation rings of classism and ethnic prejudice.

Kerri Malloy, a professor of Native American and Indigenous Studies at San José State University, told NPR that Columbus’ arrival to the Americas “triggered a mass genocide of Indigenous people throughout the Western hemisphere,” which included deadly diseases being spread among them, their land being stolen, and forcible conversion to Christianity.

Trump’s goal to enforce Columbus Day reflects his Golden Age worldview that the US should be governed “under the same rules, dates, and locations, as it has had for all of the many decades before!” The subtext: We need to return to the era in which wealthy white males controlled the lives and fates of people of color and women.

Trump simply doesn’t have the intelligence to recognize the gift of interdependence when cultures share their wealth of knowledge. He doesn’t have the cognitive ability to grasp the strength that emerges when all people are given the tools to prosper.

The audacity of Trump’s Columbus Day proclamation needs to be deconstructed.

“The legendary Christopher Columbus” — Columbus was legendary, all right. His legacy arises darkly from his brutal dominance of the native peoples he encountered, as noted in his journal.

As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts… with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them…

“The original American hero” — Heather Cox Richardson writes today that Trump’s proclamation “goes on to present a white Christian nationalist version of American history” in what is clearly one of many “modern revisions of this triumphalist history.”

“A giant of Western civilization” — The Witness Foundation explained this week, “As Columbus encountered the original inhabitants of the Americas, he evaluated them primarily based on their usefulness to Europeans.” Columbus imposed “iron discipline,” say historical scholars, on what is now the Caribbean country of the Dominican Republic. After many natives were killed, he attempted to deter further rebellion by ordering their dismembered bodies to be paraded through the streets. This is no action from a “giant of Western civilization;” rather, Trump’s proclamation fails entirely to celebrate and honor the nation’s original inhabitants.

“One of the most gallant and visionary men to ever walk the face of the earth” — Columbus was, actually, searching for Cipangu (Japan), the island of “endless gold.” His vision was a little befuddled, it turned out, for a Christmas Eve in a calm sea his ship, the Santa Maria, ran aground and became firmly stuck on the banks of an island that Columbus named Española.

“We honor his life with reverence and gratitude” — After Columbus returned to Europe, Pope Alexander VI issued a papal document, the bull Inter Cetera of May 3, 1493, “granting” to Spain – at the request of Ferdinand and Isabella – the right to conquer the lands which Columbus had already found, as well as any lands which Spain might “discover” in the future. To revere Columbus is to endorse the “Christian Empire” that Columbus set about propagating.

“Left-wing arsonists who have sought to destroy his name and dishonor his memory” — From the earliest days of European contact in the Americas, race and religion were intertwined. The presiding theory of Columbus’ time was that Indigenous Peoples, because they were non-Christians, were not human. In 2023, the Catholic Church, by way of a Vatican press release, officially renounced this moral fallacy. Trump fails to do the same.

In no uncertain terms, the Church’s magisterium upholds the respect due to every human being. The Catholic Church therefore repudiates those concepts that fail to recognize the inherent human rights of indigenous peoples, including what has become known as the legal and political ‘doctrine of discovery.’

Final Thoughts

We honor the culture of the original peoples of the Americas here at CleanTechnica — not just on Indigenous Peoples Day but across the year. We have a lot to learn from indigenous knowledge.

• We respect indigenous self-determination in the US and its connection to the transition to clean energy.
• We explained that, because fossil fuels have created an existential crisis for humans, many people are turning to native peoples to rethink and reconsider our reliance on conventional energy sources.
• We revealed that, after 36 Indigenous communities in the Peruvian Amazon used satellite-based alerts, deforestation rates declined by 52% in one year.
• We celebrated how, 30 miles south of Phoenix, members of the Akimel O’otham and Pee Posh tribes — known collectively as the Gila River Indian Community — installed floating solar panels last November over one of those canals that flows through their property — the first such installation in the US.
• We looked to some of the activism and cleantech solutions that native peoples around the world are drawing upon to mitigate the climate crisis.
• We reminded our readers that, in challenging the founding myth of the US called Manifest Destiny, Indigenous People Day emphasizes local knowledge and practices needed for the US and global community to implement and scale up climate action.

According to the Pew Research Center, 30 states and three US territories recognize Columbus Day in some way, while 17 states and DC commemorate Indigenous people on the same day.

Saturday is the No Kings Rally. Join in if you are able. As Robert Reich wrote today, “Rather than it being a ‘hate-America’ rally, Saturday’s rally is an opportunity for all of us who love America to express our determination that our nation’s ideals not be crushed by the Trump regime.” Show up in support of our democracy, climate action, and people of all cultures who make up the melting pot that is the United States. Let’s show our respect for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas as part of our protest.