• IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      16
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      … for those wondering … I’m Indigenous Canadian and the idea of Columbus day is both completely foreign and silly to me. Why anyone would celebrate a genocidal psychopathic pedophile that treated people like animals to be bought sold and traded is beyond me.

      On the flip side, it’s made me look up Native American and Trek related content, which led me to discover a whole bunch of imagery of Leonard Nimoy’s early acting career where he portrayed Native American people in many western films and TV shows.

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zip
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        1 month ago

        The original idea was to celebrate the early explorers as without them there would be no Europeans in North America and thus no US. Then people realized that maybe the explorers were no so nice to the natives. Historically Native Americans were looked down on as they were “uncivilized.”

        Basically Columbus day was a product of racist national pride.

      • Kelly Aster 🏳️‍⚧️@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        These photos are wild, I don’t think I’ve seen these before.

        Yeah, today is recognized as “Columbus Day” federally in the U.S., but it’s increasingly been referred to as “Indigenous Peoples’ Day” for the past few years at the state, city, town levels.

        Possibly linux is right, Columbus Day is a product of racist national pride. It’s not as popular as it used to be, thankfully, and it’s not something most Americans are particularly proud of. It’s definitely going to be officially renamed one day, but it’s going to take time (and likely face opposition from racists). Seriously, fuck Columbus, he was a butcher.

        • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          1 month ago

          I have heard of Columbus Day over the years and its always been a foreign concept to me because I’m Canadian and also because I’m Indigenous … I jumped on this thread at first because I was just having fun because OP mentioned something about Columbus and not thinking I started having fun with Star Trek episodes with Indigenous content (which was fun to review) … plus it led me down a search to find that Nimoy had played lots of roles as a Native American in several western films and TV shows before becoming known for Star Trek … totally wild to find all these pictures of him as a Native character.

          • Kelly Aster 🏳️‍⚧️@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            1 month ago

            It’s trippy looking at these old photos, isn’t it? I mean wtf argh lmao, Leonard Nimoy in an “Indian” costume. Wow.

            Side note. It took 70 years, but now instead of shit like this we have movies like Prey being made (omfg tell me you’ve seen it? I thought it was amazing). So we’ve come a long way.

            • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              1 month ago

              Yes I have seen it … my whole family especially everyone under the age of 30 were all excited about and we all watched it when it first came out.

              Everyone was happy that the winning underdog this time was a young Comanche girl and instead of white actors playing Native roles, or even ethnic actors playing Native roles … it was actual Native actors portraying Indigenous roles in the film.