Happy post-modern, Indigenous People’s, Columbus Day
[NOTE: This is a repeat of a previous post.]
There, did I cover enough bases? Did I get it right (I mean left)?
Like many things, Columbus Day has evolved. And here’s a discussion of the postmodern Columbus Day (from Dr. Sanity, circa 2009).
As for me, since I live up in New England and the weather has been good, I’ll should just play it safe and call it Leafpeepers Day. They’re out in force now (both the leaves and the human peepers).
I plan to take an official leafpeeping drive some weekday this week in order to try to avoid the worst of the vehicular congestion over the holiday itself.
Here are some photos I’ve taken during previous New England falls. The first isn’t a leaf, it’s a berry in its fall raiment. But let’s not get technical:
The most spectacular colors are always the reds, which come first:
In the mist:
Fini:
October leaves in NE are glorious. But the brown leaves plus fog in November also have their beauty. Dry, warming April around the beginning of fishing season – brown leaves on the ground with skunk cabbage green sprouting up, also.
The NE landscapes that are most vivid in my memory have to do with winter. Fog and snow, for example. Or starry skies with snow on the ground- a touch of clouds can be good. Winter sunrise with a touch of pink to the sky.
A hometown peer who wrote a memoir apparently also found winter landscapes most vivid in his memory, as the only mention he made of landscapes was for winter.
Why would winter be “seared” – thank you John Kerry- into landscape memories? My guess is that to survive in the cold, one needs to be more active, more vigorous- and thus more alert- than in warmer weather. Or, cold toes spark memory. 🙂
I appreciated Neo’s postings on Robert Frost. His descriptions of NE landscapes resonated with my childhood memories. There was a poem about a rainy November.
My opinions on Columbus etc. were formed before the politically correct took over the narrative. I concluded there was conflict between Indians and settlers on the frontier, where the Indians both attacked and were attacked. In addition, as I had relatives on both sides of the family with Indian ancestry, I concluded that there was a fair amount of mixture and assimilation.
My 8th grade English teacher read The Boy Captive of Old Deerfield to us, about a boy whom the Indians captured. As Deerfield wasn’t that far from my hometown, we could identify with him. (The book related incidents that were a generation or so after King Phillip’s War.)
According the the family genealogy my grandmother assembled, we were related to someone with our family surname who as a child was also kidnapped by the Indians. He was rescued after several years. He had a love-hate relationship throughout his life with Indians. On the one hand, he killed some Indians- at times breaking frontier truces between Indians and settlers. On the other hand, after his rescue he pretty much lived as an Indian- much more comfortable in the woods than in town. My sister-in-law updated my grandmother’s genealogy, and concluded that we weren’t related to him.
A third of my cousins had spouses with Indian ancestry.
My mother’s two brothers both married women with 1/8 Indian ancestry. Regarding Indian versus Native American, one of my aunts agreed that Native American would accurately describe her ancestry. But I grew up with “Indian,” so that is what I have used here.
When my brother went to high school in DC, his best friend had a grandfather who left the reservation to get educated and eventually become an attorney in DC. His grandfather changed his name to what he believed would sound as WASPy as possible, to better market himself.
In my time in Latin America, at times I saw evidence of a still-festering conflict between those of European descent and those of indigenous descent.
In Huaras in the Peruvian Andes, I was initially uncomfortable with repeatedly being called “Gringo.” (A Peruvian of European descent later informed me that “Gringo” was used to mean “white guy.” He was thus also a “Gringo.”) While they were calling me “white guy,” they were also outgoing. A child volunteered to me that his parents considered his birth to be a blessing from God. They also wanted to teach me Quechua- some of which I still remember.
They were also jocular, which I enjoyed. Having encountered their joking nature in town, I was not scared when on a bus to a point where I would commence a five day hike, fellow passengers informed me that those living in the hinterlands were dangerous. I laughed off that “warning.” My only encounter on the hike with locals was quite hospitable. This was before the days of Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path)- when such a hike would REALLY have been quite dangerous.
I love this time of year, especially in my New England home. The reds are spectacular but so are the more vibrant yellows and orange.
I am glad someone still notes Columbus Day…as Columbus Day. In Australia, where I currently live, there’s a rustling & a rumbling about changing the date/shape of Australia Day celebrations out of sensitivity to Indigenous feelings that it represents a day they note as an “Invasion Day.”
SMH :-/
In Australia, where I currently live, there’s a rustling & a rumbling about changing the date/shape of Australia Day celebrations out of sensitivity to Indigenous feelings that it represents a day they note as an “Invasion Day.”
How many Aussies of non-Aboriginal descent, who believe Australia Day should be renamed “Invasion Day,” are willing to put their money where their mouths are and leave Australia for their ancestral homelands? Precious few, I predict.
I will just say Happy Columbus Day to one and all. (It just sounds better than “Happy Leif Erikson Day.” *g*)
And thanks to Neo for the photos … Fall has always been my favorite season. Personal favorite is the one with the fog over the beautifully colored trees.
(Signed) A full-bore Native American with, as far as my mother knew, not one drop of Indian blood. :>)))
My European ancestors came to the new world in 1742 and I have some Shawnee DNA. I am with Julie near Chicago, I am a Native American. Happy Columbus Day and happy autumn, the glorius season that is only eclipsed by the joy of the renewal that spring brings.
Even if you believe in the notion of “indigenous people’s day”, why would you lay all the blame on Christopher Columbus? And when do all the folks advocating for the change in the name of the holiday plan to retreat to their country of origin?
Nice to see the New England Fall – here in Western Australia it brings home the unique character of the the autumn in New England.
BTW Having intermittent database erros.
You didn’t cover the LGBTQRSTUVWXYZ bases.
Shame on you.
On a Different Topic:
Nikki Haley is resigning!! WH announcement shortly.
WTF…?????
The real history of Christopher Columbus and all the rest during the Age of Discovery is fascinating, and far more interesting than the narrative of conquest and exploitation that it has been reduced to in these politically-correct times.
As for my ancestors, they all came over from England around 1630, to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and then later moved to what is now the State of Maine. Several of them were killed by Indians in the 17th and early 18th centuries, in that period of total conflict between the English settlers, the Indian tribes, and the French in Canada. Another one got off to an early start in the American Revolution by fighting at Bunker Hill.
And there was also one particularly colorful ancestor who indicted multiple times by the Court of Massachusetts, in 1664 for living unlawfully as husband and wife; in 1680 for lying drunk in the road; and yet again in 1691 for profaning the Sabbath. Isn’t real history fun?
It’s Columbus Day to me and always will be. PC should not dictate what the holiday is called in order to “heal” wounds. Let’s face it, if not Columbus then someone else would have founded America, and it would not be the NA (no offense Julie).