This is a forum sponsored by the Native American Student Association of SUNY Binghamton (N.A.S.A.)
"There are only two federal holidays in America named after a historical figure, Martin Luther King Day and Columbus Day. Martin Luther King was a civil rights activist whose dedication to the human rights of minorities in America changed history and the lives of minorities in America forever. Christopher Columbus was an early explorer of claimed Italian descent who brutalized, tortured, murdered, raped, sold into slavery and decimated indigenous populations of the Americas. One has to wonder why America would honor the atrocities against indigenous people with a holiday to honor the perpetrator of these acts. Why does the American government continue to honor, with a national holiday, a man with a legacy of genocide, who never set foot in the United States of American and whose own homeland, Italy, has no day to celebrate him. This paper explores the recorded history of the beginning of the American holocaust, the acts of Christopher Columbus, and the United States Government herofication of the perpetrators of genocide and the American Holocaust."
The forum featured four speakers, who each discussed different ideas related to the colonization of the Americas. The speakers are:
-Robert Spiegelman, York College, City University of New York "Climate Changers: From Columbus-Hudson through Sullivan-Clinton to Lyons-Hansen." A Multimedia Light on Mother Earth, Then and Now
-John R. Sosa (Maya) Associate Professor of Anthropology: SUNY Cortland U Yaà ¡ Kâùuà üâùul, "The First Arrival of the Foreigners": Maya Versions of Colonial History and Implications for Indigenous People Today
-Paulette Steeves (Cree) Anthropology, graduate student, Binghamton "Concealing historical truths is a crime against all people" Who was Columbus and What Did He Do?
-Andrew Curley (Navajo) graduate student, Sociology, Cornell "Natural Resource Development and New Forms of Colonialism on American Indian Reservations"
I was not able to get Dr.Spiegelman's talk recorded, there is an interview with him in its place.
This was held October 10th 2009 at the Downtown Center of Binghamton University
Nastassja Noell, Vincent Fronda, Native America Student Association
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