I contend that the ideological
war being waged in the United States by the 2010s over whether October 12th
should be “Indigenous People’s” Day or Columbus Day became real in 2021 when
President Biden issued a proclamation commemorating “Indigenous People’s” Day not
coincidentally to fall on the same day as Columbus Day. Similarly, though only unofficially,
the United American Indians of New England have labeled Thanksgiving Day as “The
National Day of Mourning” since 1970. The de facto hegemony of ideology in changing
official U.S. holidays, including in the refusal of some people and even businesses
to say “Christmas” even on Christmas Eve Day, has proceeded without the premise
that ideology should play such a role being debated in public discourse.
Instead, the onslaught has been enabled by the vehemence of the conquerors in insisting
that their decisions be recognized and not contradicted. Once I went to a
Unitarian “church” on a Thanksgiving expecting a spirit of gratefulness, as per
President Lincoln’s proclamation establishing the date of the holiday after two
years of brutal war between the CSA and USA. The sermon was instead on the need
for sorrow instead. I walked out, shaking my head in utter disbelief. Perhaps
some Americans might one day insist that a similar mood be preached in churches
on Christmas Day. Both the need and insistence come with a tone
of passive aggression, and are indeed power-grabs based in resentment, which
Nietzsche argued is a major indication of weakness rather than strength, and thus
self-confidence. Perhaps the manufactured dialectics, such as the one centered
on October 12th, can be transcended in a Hegelian rather than
religious sense at a higher level.
According to Britannica,
Helge and Anne Ingstad discovered “the remains of a Viking encampment that they
were able to date to the year 1000,” almost 500 years before Columbus’ landing on
islands in the Bahamas (rather than on the mainland of North America).[1]
The Graenlendinga Saga (Saga of the Greenlanders) has Bjarni Herjólfsson
as the first European to see mainland North America in 985. At around the year
1000 CE, Leif Eriksonn, son of Erik the Red, “is reported to have led an
expedition in search of the land sighted by Herjólfsson,” according to Eiríks
Saga Rauda.[2]
This is consistent with the empirical evidence found in Newfoundland. Leif Eriksonn “found an icy barren land he
called Helluland (“Land of Flat Rocks”) before eventually travelling south and
finding Vinland (“Land of Wine”).[3]
Later, Leif’s brothers travelled to Vinland, where their expedition stayed for
three years. This is certainly sufficient to refer to the holiday on October 12th
as “Vikings’ Day,” or “Eriksonn Day,” which would cover the brothers too. Columbus
Day has been antiquated by the discovery of Viking artifacts on the mainland of
North America, in Newfoundland, which is a lot closer to where the Puritans
settled than is the Caribbean islands, which of course are not on the mainland
of North America.
To be sure, the peoples who
came to be known as American Indians by the Europeans had come to North America
thousands of years earlier, and thus were not indigenous either, could be said
to have been the first people to discover America, from the vantage point of
Asia rather than Europe. But those people emigrated gradually from east Asia over
a land-bridge that extended back then westward from Alaska, rather than coming over
after an expedition of discovery. In any case, the word “Indigenous” can be
struck from “Indigenous Peoples” Day for greater accuracy.
In short, Vikings Day can
safely, from the perspective of the hyperactive ideologies, be used for the holiday,
as there is no evidence that the Vikings in the eleventh century mistreated any
of the earlier arrivals from Asia. The dialectic of Columbus Day and American
Indians Day can thus be done away with at a higher level of historical accuracy.
The role of ideology in making
and remaking holidays in the U.S. can be seen as it has played out at
universities located in different member states. At Harvard, which is located
in Massachusetts, classes and offices were closed on “Indigenous Peoples Day”
on October 12, 2024, without any mention of “Columbus Day” in the academic
calendar. The ideological preference is clear not only in which name the
university used for the holiday (rather than using both names), but also in the
fact that the university did not cancel classes for Veterans Day. Universities
in the militaristic member-state of Arizona had classes on Columbus Day but not
on Veterans Day. Whereas Harvard kept
its libraries open on “Indigenous Peoples Day,” public universities in Arizona
did not even do that for Veterans Day, in spite of the fact that students would
obviously be studying on a one-day break from classes. Harvard is typically
compared with Yale. Not even Yale cancelled classes on October 12th
(or on Veterans Day); instead, Yale, unlike Harvard, had a fall break of one
week in October, which did not include Columbus Day.
In short, the respective university
administrations, reflecting the political ideology that was most powerful locally,
were making ideological statements in deciding whether and when to not hold
classes on particular holidays. Harvard’s administration used the excuse that
Cambridge, Mass recognized “Indigenous Peoples Day” as the reason why the
university was recognizing that holiday and not Columbus Day, even though it
too was a national (and state) holiday. I would not be surprised if Americans
of Italian ancestry felt a slap. Part of the problem with ideology-fueled
resentment is that such collateral damage is ignored or even, in a twisted way,
believed to be justified. Allowing an
ideology to turn holidays into a battlefield is in dire need of being debated
in the public square in the United States, rather than being tacitly allowed due
to the efforts to intimidate. “Thanksgiving IS a day of sorrow! You
better not disagree!” Such has been the tone intended to thwart even debate on
the matter.
1. Jeff Wallenfeldt, “Did
the Vikings Discover America?” Britannica.com (accessed October 14, 2024).
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
