12 October 2020

Where Were YOU Born?

I've seen several screeds demanding we end Columbus Day and celebrate indigenous people's day.
 
The thing is, not even the indigenous people in America are indigenous to America if you go back far enough.
 
The "indigenous" people displaced by European settlers were merely the most recent residents of the area, not the first settlers from the Siberian land-bridge migrations out of Asia.
 
How long do you have to live someplace before you're indigenous?
 
The Sioux didn't live in the Black Hills during the written history of the place, yet they're considered indigenous and not the tribes they themselves displaced.
 
How long is long enough?
 
Me, I consider myself to be a native of this land.  Indigenous.
 
I didn't move here from another nation.
 
My father didn't.  My mother didn't.
 
My father's father and mother didn't.
 
My mother's mother didn't.  My mother's father came here from Italy.
 
We were born here and are as native as someone who traces their ancestors to pre-historic and pre-columbian times.

2 comments:

  1. Columbus Day could be gotten rid of as a federal holiday easily enough, since it's so unpopular with much of the country. Trump could drop Columbus Day and add Juneteenth as a popular substitute.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Born in Holyoke, MA U.S.A. (which makes me what is known as a Masshole). Can't say I am any less indigenous than the Nipmuc Indians or the Paleoindians before them. Prior to people the area was under a 2 mile thick ice sheet.

    ReplyDelete

You are a guest here when you comment. This is my soapbox, not yours. Be polite. Inappropriate comments will be deleted without mention. Amnesty period is expired.

Do not go off on a tangent, stay with the topic of the post. If I can't tell what your point is in the first couple of sentences I'm flushing it.

If you're trying to comment anonymously: You can't. Log into your Google account.

If you can't comprehend this, don't comment; because I'm going to moderate and mock you for wasting your time.