Federal holidays for genocide and slave trade.

So yesterday it was Columbus Day, celebrating the accidental sailing into the Caribbean islands by some Italian dude paid by some Spanish dudes, which began a regime of genocide and slave trade. Pretty upstanding guy, that Christopher.

For a while, there has been a small minority, mostly Native Americans and black Americans with some observant white Americans, asking to replace Columbus Day with Native American Day or a remembrance day for the suffering of minorities caused by Columbus's deeds. They've been unheard and we go about our business, saying a quiet "Fuck yeah Columbus" and cursing that the bank is closed.

Native Americans are an often ignored minority in the United States. Many people laugh about their casinos on their reservations, their alcoholism, and their desperation to cling to their culture. Most stay on reservations to keep a shred of their culture alive, but unfortunately these are pieces of land that the government gave to them that are infertile, far from jobs, and no where near cultural holy sites. Many start casinos to give their families a chance, and, if your culture stood in ruins around you and you couldn't find a job to feed your family, I'm sure you'd hit the bottle too.

So today, instead of celebrating the jerk that is Columbus, let's celebrate Native Americans, with some pictures and interesting facts.

• The United States Constitution is based enormously off of the laws of the Iroquois Nation, which included the Onondaga, Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, and Seneca tribes (and later the Tuscarora). Without the Iroquios Nation, there would be no US Constitution with such a strong basis.
• The medicine that tribes across the United States and Canada used was far more advanced and effective than their European breathrens, and some of these same remedies are used in modern medicine to this day.
• Sequoia, the Cherokee man who created the Cherokee alphabet, is the one who sequoya trees are named after.
• Many tribes did not have a written language, and relied solely on the excellent memory of their storytellers to hear tales of their mythology.
• Native Americans did not have horses until European contact. This is because horses are not native to the Americans, and the ones the tribes had were escaped horses from Spanish, French, and English explorers.

I know very little Cherokee back when I became interesting in learning the language, so here's a ridiculously simple conversation in Tsalagi (the Cherokee language) itself! Yay!

Osiyo, dto hi tsu?
Osda, ni hi na?
Osadadv.
Howa!

Translation:
Yo, what up G.
Notta thang homes. How you doin'?
Chillin.
Aight!

As you can see I'm quite fluent, and the translation is highly accurate.

A Hopi girl and her adorable squash-blossom hairstyle reserved for maidens.

A man in traditional Cherokee clothing. No, not all of them wore feathers and buckskin pants.

Thought to be Crazy Horse, or Tashunka Witco. He was pretty cool.

A Pacific Northwestern carving of a Kwakwaka'wakw, Pugwis, an undersea spirit.

In conclusion, remember those who were slaughtered because some stuffy guy in a silly hat couldn't find his way to Indonesia, and celebrate them instead of him. My fiance is Cherokee, so I celebrated in the most fun way possible.