Monique Vondall-Rieke: Columbus Day and who came first?

Tuesday, October 11, 2011  

"On the eve of what most Americans celebrate as “Columbus Day” I found myself turning to the History Channel to watch “Who Really Discovered America?” I was instantly upset by the summations of world experts on how other cultures, civilizations if you will, came to settle or exist in North America. My husband, a Caucasian, said, “It’s so ridiculous how Europeans always try to prove they were there first.” I began to put things into perspective. I began to remember a time when I didn’t care where someone came from.

Around the age of 13, I was learning the hard way the differences of people. I lived just over the other side of the road of the reservation line and often would walk through the aisles of the Rolla, North Dakota Ben Franklin store with the elderly white ladies who worked there on my heels, watching for American Indian thievery. This sad story has been retold time and again in most writings of Metis and Ojibwe people who grew up on the Turtle Mountain Reservation along the Canada border in North Dakota.

As I listened to the ridiculous claims of the History Channel’s program on Sunday, I “harrumphed” my way through the “expert” analysis. First of all, I was always told that there is no medical way to tell the difference between races of people. Now, however, this show claims that DNA testing done on Cherokees may tie them to Irish descendents. I can’t believe this claim and find the invasion of a culture of people so amazingly disruptive of the balance of life—I have to continue watching it."

Get the Story:
Monique Vondall-Rieke: Revisiting Columbus Day: Wonderment Does Not Equal Truth (Indian Country Today 10/10)