“I think it’s a false idea that he discovered America because you can’t discover a place where there’s already people there.”Īs he educated himself further about Columbus and the atrocities he committed against Indigenous people, Beard says he became even more horrified. “It was difficult because I felt like I was in a weird position where I kind of had to agree with it in order to do well in that environment,” he says. He recalls an exam in eighth grade in which he was asked a true or false question about whether Columbus discovered America.Īccording to his teacher, the answer was true, but Beard says he knew that responding true was not an accurate representation of historical events. In elementary school in Warren, New Jersey, he was taught the “Columbus discovered America” version of American history, which he says conflicted with what he was taught at home.

That dichotomy has never sat well with Connor Beard, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, co-chair of Natives at Penn, and one of the 55,000 members of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. Indigenous peoples populated the land now called the United States for more than 15,000 years before the arrival of Christopher Columbus, but most American schools teach that Columbus “discovered” America-despite the fact that he never set foot on its soil. Penn Today spoke with members of this community about their views on Christopher Columbus, and the suffering of Indigenous people under colonialism. Penn is home to a small but proud and passionate Indigenous community, which has existed since two Mohawk brothers, Jonathan and Philip Gayienquitioga, attended the Academy of Philadelphia in 1755. Members of the Richmond Indigenous Society took part in the June rally.Īll of Southeastern Pennsylvania and South Jersey inhabit Indigenous land, that of the Lenape people. In a show of support for Indigenous communities, anti-racist activists, carrying signs reading “This land is Powhatan land” and “Columbus represents genocide,” pulled down a Columbus statue in Richmond, Virginia, and threw it into a lake. Members of the American Indian Movement were among the demonstrators, and danced and sang around the fallen icon. Paul, Minnesota, not far from where Floyd was killed, was toppled in June by protesters, who tied ropes around its neck and yanked it from its pedestal. (Image: Max Nesterak/Minnesota Reformer)Ī 10-foot bronze statue of Columbus in St.

On June 10, activists led by members of the American Indian Movement tore down a statue of Christopher Columbus at the Minnesota State Capitol.

Anti christopher columbus day