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[Ed note: In observance of the US federal holiday which is observed on Monday October 11, 2021, I am inviting the editorial staff to run stories on a weekend schedule tomorrow. Please join me in thanking them for all their hard work and for the sacrifice of their spare time and energy! --martyb.]
Biden becomes first president to issue proclamation marking Indigenous Peoples' Day:
President Joe Biden issued a proclamation commemorating Indigenous Peoples' Day on Friday, becoming the first US president to do so, the White House said.
"The contributions that Indigenous peoples have made throughout history — in public service, entrepreneurship, scholarship, the arts, and countless other fields — are integral to our Nation, our culture, and our society," Biden wrote in the proclamation Friday. "Today, we acknowledge the significant sacrifices made by Native peoples to this country — and recognize their many ongoing contributions to our Nation."
Biden also marked a change of course from previous administrations in his proclamation marking Columbus Day, which honors the explorer Christopher Columbus. In that proclamation, the President acknowledged the death and destruction wrought on native communities after Columbus journeyed to North America in the late 1500s, ushering in an age of European exploration of the Western Hemisphere.
"Today, we also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities. It is a measure of our greatness as a Nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light, and we do all we can to address them," Biden wrote.
More than 100 cities -- including Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver, Phoenix, San Francisco -- and a number of states -- including Minnesota, Alaska, Vermont and Oregon -- have replaced Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day, choosing instead to recognize the native populations that were displaced and decimated after Columbus and other European explorers reached the continent. Berkeley, California, was the first city to adopt Indigenous Peoples' Day, in 1992.
Also at Al Jazeera.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday October 11 2021, @03:42AM (4 children)
You mean contributions apart from developing the primary agricultural crop in the Americas today and possibly the world, and a related agricultural system that remained the backbone of the European colonist's diet for centuries after their arrival? Or some of the political ideas that were included in the US Constitution? Or the eagle holding arrows on the seal of the USA, which was straight-up ripped off from the Iroquois? Or establishing trade and travel routes that in many cases would form the basis of modern road routes?
Lots of native peoples had metalworking well in hand when Europeans arrived. One reason we know this is that when Columbus showed up, he immediately noticed the metal jewelry these guys were wearing.
They by all appearances had a very good understanding of geometry. We don't know about their algebraic knowledge one way or another, since they mostly didn't keep written records.
But also importantly, the Europeans hadn't really figured out algebra in the late 1400's. An Arabic guy had figured it out and was responsible for the name "al-jebra", and it was just starting to be understood in Europe well enough to refine it, so Columbus and his crew probably didn't know algebra very well. They probably knew enough math to use a astrolabe reasonably competently, but couldn't solve quadratic equations or anything like that.
Since they had documented accurate calendar systems, including in societies near the equator where the sun doesn't provide much of a clear measurement, yes, they probably did have a decent understanding of astronomy. Since we can't read the written languages of the cultures that had writing, we don't know exactly the extent of their astronomy knowledge, but it was definitely more than nothing.
Oh, and this is another one of those areas where in Europe around 1500 had their knowledge cribbed from Arabic scholars. This was decades before Brahe, Galileo, Newton, Kepler, et al.
That's absolutely ridiculously wrong. Maya cities had had large populations and significant cultural influence centuries earlier. Aztec Tenochtitlan was, according to the Spanish, the largest city they'd ever encountered by a wide margin. Even if you just limit it to the present-day US, Cahokia had been a thriving city located near present-day St Louis, exactly where you'd want to be for a major hub of commerce. Like in Europe, there were lots of different-sized settlements depending on the needs of the people living there.
... unless you count the native Hawaiians, who like pretty much all Polynesian peoples did exactly that.
Like all people, sometimes there was peace, sometimes there was war, and which one you're talking about depended a lot on politics and diplomacy. There's no evidence that suggests that Americans in 1450 were any more violent than Europeans or Asians or Africans or Australians in 1450.
A common use of feathers was to stick it on the side of their face to shade their eyes from the sun glare. A cheap, easy innovation that has been tested and works nicely. Sure, some of them also used feathers as decorative bling ... just like Europeans did at the same time and would continue to do into the Victorian period.
As for the drugs, as lots of hippies can tell you, they'd discovered psychedelic mushrooms a very very long time ago. So if your the sort that likes tripping, that's definitely a native contribution.
And that's just the stuff before European contact. After European contact, there's stuff like code-talkers that saved a lot of people's butts in WWII.
To summarize, I don't think you have the faintest idea what you're talking about and are instead commenting based on stereotypes rather than reality.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 11 2021, @04:32AM
Does that mean in all those staged pictures of indian chiefs with all the feathers, that those bonnets are on backwards?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday October 11 2021, @06:09PM (2 children)
The Maya had sailing craft that could travel long distances, though they tended to keep it to coastal voyages. Trade routes also existed in the Caribbean, which perforce required sailing long distances.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday October 11 2021, @06:22PM (1 child)
GP was suggesting that natives couldn't handle journeys in the thousands of miles, not the much shorter distances between, say, what's now Honduras and Jamaica (not saying the Maya couldn't do that - basically any culture that isn't completely landlocked figured out ocean-worthy boats). Whereas the Hawaiians were part of a culture that was navigating the Pacific with remarkable levels of skill long before any Europeans showed up, and by all appearances doing things like making the 2500 mile trip to the North American coast to do some trading and swapping of knowledge.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday October 12 2021, @01:27PM
Sure. Pacific Islanders were by far the best navigators and seafarers of that time, far better than the Europeans. I was only adding in that those in the Americas proper had some maritime chops too.
Washington DC delenda est.