| Colorado AIM Announces Protes of Columbus Parade
| Date: Saturday, October 12, 1991
| Place: State Capitol, Denver Colorado
| Time: Beginning at 9:00 A.M.
|
| AIM & American Indian Anti-Defamation League Call
| For Transformation of Racist Holiday
|
| The American Indian Movement (AIM) of Colorado, in conjunction
| with the American Indian Anti-Defamation League (AIADL), is calling
| for a major demonstration by American Indians and their allies on
| Saturday, October 12, 1991 beginning at 9 A.M., in Denver, Colorado
| on the west steps of the State Capitol Building to protest the
| expanding celebrations of the colonial Indian-killwer, Christopher
| Columbus.
|
| At the rally, political war will be declared on the concept of
| Columbus Day as a national and state holiday, and a call will be
| made for all Indian People and our allies, actively, to confront
| the racist celebrations planned for the 500th anniversary of the
| beginning of the American genocide, and to transform Columbus Day
| into an inclusive celebration of the hemisphere's multicultural
| heritage.
(end of quote). I realize there is no point in ANYONE protesting
AIM's protest, but I really feel I need to express a deep concern regarding
all of the INEVITABLE anti-Columbus crap that we will either join-in with, or
view from a safe distance, or read about.
I have a deep regard for Michele Lord, and am assuming that she is merely
passing on information, rather than a "blanket encouragement statement" ...that
we should all rush out and do the same. Being of "mixed blood" I hear a lot
more conversations that native don't have to listen to that often, but even so
I'm sure you have all heard, at one time or another, comments like: Boy, those
Indians are so busy being hostile about events that were done to other people,
by other people, hundreds of years ago, that they don't have the energy to
do anything productive .... or "yeah, you've had it tough..... just get off
your !@#!! and get a decent education, and a decent job, and stop moaning &
groaning about spilt milk" ..... "love it or leave it" (no there is a truly
ASANINE one); .... "If you hadn't been discovered by the Europeans, you
wouldn't be using computers today (from a looney texan)...... Catholocism
taught the savage how to behave in a civilized manner" (no there is a good
joke), etc.
The fact remains that while we can all understand the anger and emotion behind
protesting a Columbus Day parade, the AVERAGE AMERICAN WON'T THINK OF ANYTHING
EXCEPT THAT WE ARE SO !@#$!# HOSTILE, THAT WE'LL NEVER PROGRESS .... not defin-
ing progress here. We need public APATHY, NOT PUBLIC CONTEMP! If you say to
"Joe Public" that the Columbus Day celebrations are a celebration of genocide
they won't even bother to wonder why you feel that way, they'll just think
the Indians are totally F----d! They don't give a damn about this ass Colum-
bus, but they are thrilled to death that SOMEONE "discovered" America and opened
the way for "colonization" .... and the fact that it was this colonization
that led to genocide, is something that they won't equate. If we have to keep
beating a dead horse, it is better to EDUCATE; not DENEGRATE... My plan for
a Holloween gathering (to get it out of my system) is to dress up as Father
Serra with several arrows through my head and body, and a black cross hanging
down the front of it that has the "NO WHATEVER" red circle with a slash thru
it, encircling this cross (I can't buy it that way, so I'll make one out of
"Fimo Dough" which you can bake in the oven. Originally I was going to
have a monster mask on as well, or better yet, a "grim reaper" mask (my son's
suggestion), oh yes, and I'll be carrying a whip of some sort. HOWEVER, the
more I think about it, the more I wonder if the reaction of non-Indians will
be one of contempt rather than apathy..... whereas if I just stay with the
original "monk full of arrows" regalia, people would probably say "Boy, isn't
that the truth".... but add phony blood, a skeleton face, a few scalps on
my belt, and it becomes an act of hostility.
Yes, we have a reason to be angry .... but that anger should be directed at
government officials who spend MILLIONS on saying what a great guy Columbus
was.... I still remember an x-rated song from the 1950's that went:
Christopher Columbo, he thought the world was round-o
That high faloutin, routin' tootin' son-of-a bitch, Columbo.
How many non-Indians know of his murdering thousands of natives on the way
to and from America? I didn't know of it myself until a few years ago when
I met an Arowak Indian up in Canada. Better to contact our senators,
mayors, universities, etc., and ask for public programs on what the first
americans lost with the discovery back in 1492.
I sincerely hope that each and every one of us considers the message behind
confrontations and demonstrations and the public response to these
distinctly hostile acts like that which AIM is HOPING FOR. Why should we
lower ourselves to the mentality and agressiveness of our "conquerors"? Why
should we want to prove that we are still savages? ... still disrespectful
of other people's opinions?
lyn