Trump ignores Native people on Columbus Day while campaign touts '1492' sale

Posted: Tuesday, October 10, 2017

President Donald Trump ignored Native Americans as he issued a proclamation for Columbus Day.

The proclamation, issued on Friday, credited Christopher Columbus with the eventual establishment of the United States. It did not mention the tribal nations that were already thriving within its borders, nor the impacts they saw after Europeans arrived to their homelands.

"The permanent arrival of Europeans to the Americas was a transformative event that undeniably and fundamentally changed the course of human history and set the stage for the development of our great Nation," the proclamation read.

Despite forgetting the first Americans, Trump's official campaign arm didn't want supporters to forget Columbus Day. Just two days later, an email announced a sale with a special promotional code: 1492.

“As Leftists push harder and harder to erase our nation's past, there's never been a better time to celebrate our history,” the email read, POLITICO reporter Dan Diamond wrote on Twitter. “That's why we're celebrating Christopher Columbus's legendary voyage to America with an EXCLUSIVE Columbus Day Sale!”

@Harvard students Celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day. @NNNnativenews @NativeVoices @indiancountry @Native_NewsNet @indianz @180099native @CNN pic.twitter.com/XehZT9GsrF
— Maung Nyeu (@M_Nyeu) October 10, 2017

In contrast, then-president Barack Obama, a Democrat, acknowledged Native people in his 2016 Columbus Day proclamation. "The past we share is marked by too many broken promises, as well as violence, deprivation, and disease," he wrote last year.

Like Trump, Republican former president George W. Bush did not acknowledge Native people with his Columbus Day proclamations either. Trump's proclamation and Bush's proclamations are similar in tone and message.

Trump's Columbus Day proclamation was issued early Friday afternoon. A couple of hours later, the White House announced the nomination of Robert Weaver, a citizen of the Quapaw Tribe, to serve as the director of the Indian Health Service.