Columbus Day: no cause for celebration | Dana Lone Hill

"proud South Dakota does not honor the creator of the Native American genocide, but we are not alone in union

across America on Monday, people will celebrate Columbus Day. I do not know what that means exactly, except that there is usually a sale where you can buy white sheets on a reduction of 20%. It is assumed, however, can have parades, people have free time from work, school, etc. According to Wikipedia, "Columbus Day first became an official holiday in the state of Colorado in 1906 and became a day federal holiday in 1937, if people have celebrated Columbus's voyage since the colonial period. "

Personally, I do not know anyone who "celebrates" Columbus Day. I know a lot of people protesting Columbus Day.

In other states, that is. Look, 22 years ago here in South Dakota, Republican Gov. George Mickelson replaced Columbus Day with Native American Day. This is why it is the only state to honor the indigenous peoples of this country, instead of honoring the principle of attempted genocide. Mickelson has proclaimed the year 1990 as "Year of Reconciliation" and changed the holiday of the same year, with the help of the state legislature. He was supposed to be the beginning of a long way to improve race relations in the state which has a troubled history in this regard.

always been proud that our state does not respect someone who killed, raped and enslaved the indigenous peoples. Considering that the beginning of a genocide, it would be like putting a day dedicated to honoring the memory of Hitler and sale leaves a discount for its role in the world. Initiative Mickelson made me feel as if we were a little ahead of the rest of the country is the state in which remembers the massacre at Wounded Knee, the occupation of Wounded Knee, and the unsolved death of our people in incident in 1973. Therefore, we celebrate Native American Day, not Columbus Day.

• However, as the Lakota people, everyone has experienced racism in the state of South Dakota. Each and every one of us, repeatedly. My first time was when I was six years old and moving out of the reserve. They called me horrible names, but I survived. And that was only the beginning.
• remember another time when I was 18, my family moved to the city closest to our reservation. It was a real nice area, historical, my stepfather was a lawyer. We received an anonymous letter in the mail that calls us and tells us that the names back to the reservation. I took the letter and went door to door trying to find out who sent him. Of course, nobody has acknowledged, I went home crying and crazy. The next day the neighbors brought us casseroles, biscuits and chocolate. But when they left, my mother would not let us eat the food: it was paranoid that food can make you sick (if a donor is the one who sent the letter)

This does not mean that the fudge and cookies not mysteriously disappeared, however. Too many children in the house.

Thus, 22 years after the proclamation of Governor Mickelson of "Year of Reconciliation" improved race relations in this state? We all like to think they did. But then is difficult to ignore an incident like this a few weeks ago at South Dakota State University, where students of Indian reservations in the state have been subjected to graffiti in a bathroom dorm called "Praire [sic black ] returns to the ground "(list specific numbers of students" room).

It was the same insult he had read in the anonymous letter to my family when I was 18. This latest incident has not stopped Native American students to go to college, and is considered a hate crime. But it shows that some of our citizens is clearly still a long way to go to learn to accept people who lived here before them.
Our hope is that we all learn from it - and remember Governor Mickelson, who made the first step, and he died at the age of 52 in an accident in 1993. One day, I hope the rest of the EU Member States will join the South Dakota not to honor the memory of a murderer.

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