The
Christopher Columbus Myth
In America, Thanksgiving is a time
for celebration and to show gratitude to our lives. In classrooms across the country,
elementary kids dress us as “Indians” and pilgrims while making turkeys out of assorted
colors of construction paper. And this is Thanksgiving as we know it right?
Well, the story of Christopher Columbus and the “discovery” of the Americas as
we’ve learned about it in grade school is far from the truth. A lot of national
holidays are quite skewed actually now that I think about it…But never the
less, we did not learn the truth behind this story until we grew older, but
even then we have been told a very Eurocentric version. Yes, I understand that
telling 8 year olds about mass genocide and stealing land from the Native Americans
may be a bit gruesome, but it’s the truth isn’t it?
Jim Charles addresses several myths
regarding Native Americans and Christopher Columbus in his peer- reviewed, academic
journal entitled “Out of the Cupboard and into the classroom: Children and the
American Indian Literary Experience.” The genre of this source is a scholarly
publication. In order to tailor to a younger audience, I can change the genre
to a story book to tell the story of Thanksgiving. For an older audience, I
will go with a newspaper article, preferably an opinion editorial so that I can
give my personal thoughts on the subject.
Considering we are telling this
story to children, we will keep it G rated. But that doesn’t mean completely
altering the truth so that Columbus looks like the good guy. The point of view
of my story book would be told through the eyes of a Native American child.
This way, the reader can identify with the main character a little better. I
would address the myths listed by Charles and tell what actually happened. For
instance, Myth number 1 states: “When Columbus arrived in the Americas, the
land was largely uninhabited.” I would say that in fact, there was diversity
and culture throughout the land. I would include colored illustrations of the
Native Peoples in everyday life. Their homes, families, food practices, etc. The
story might get sad though because I would want to add the population decrease
from 15 million to less than 1. I would have the main character notice that
there are less people where he or she lives and that the majority had gotten
sick to demonstrate European disease. But
nothing too dramatic because I wouldn’t want to traumatize the kids haha, but I
do think it’s important for them to know this is the truth!
In my newspaper article, I would address
that I don’t think it’s fair for children to learn this version of Thanksgiving
and the “discovery” of “Indians.” First of all, how can one man discover a
continent that is already inhabited with people who have been thriving on the
land. He may have stumbled upon it ACCIDENTLY, thinking it was India. (He didn’t
even have the correct location, issue #1). Basically my article would probably
end up being one big rant on how I agree with Charles in his journal. I would
like to see what other people have to say about my article as well. If it was online,
I’d want to see comments from others to make it more interactive and open to
discussion. This you can’t really accomplish with a younger audience.
This is how I would take an academic
journal and transform it into two different genres while still remaining true
to its content.
