Traditional Myths About Christopher's Discovery Of America

In 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the Atlantic Ocean, as far as the Iceland and West Africa, his adventures convinced him that the world was round. Thus, the fabled riches of the East spices, silk and gold could be had by sailing in West “, (Leowen, 1995, p.29). As a voyager his journey was motivated by discovering new land but his objectives was to find a Western route to the Indies. This essay will look at the traditional myths about Christopher and his discovery of America (new land). Than discuss how revisionist historians and American Indians activist maintained to object the traditional myths and the discovering of America.

According Leowen (1995) to Native Americans Columbus appeared as a man who came across the ocean to damage and

abolish the history of America as well as the indigenous American people. In addition, Schuman, Schwartz and D’Arcy (2005), assert that revisionist historians and American Indian activist believed that Columbus does not deserve to be honoured by Americans as one of their icons in history of the Native America. Revisionist historian and American activist developed their critique towards the story of Columbus (myths) subsequently by reviewing traditional history which presented about the 1492 voyage of Columbus’s to America.
Schuman, Schwartz and D’Arcy (2005) noted that the revisionist and Native Americans interpreted the arrival of Columbus in America in a negative and different from the traditional history.

They noted that’s the arrival of Columbus was the beginning of colonisation in America as it destroyed many Native American people and their cultures. This revisionist concern was sustained by Zinn (1980) who showed that Columbus was no hero to Native Americans. Zinn (1980) tells the story of Columbus by pointing out the important and missing information about Columbus. arrivals of in America. He further ,state that Columbus came to America searching for wealth, such as gold which he maintained to find in the Caribbean’s and other Indian tribes he found. In this case Columbus myths are challenged as Zinn’s (1980) book reveals the immoral side of Columbus which did not appear in the traditional history textbooks. Leowen (1995) noted that most of the myths about Columbus were presented in these history

textbooks
Leowen (1995) states that most of these History books portrayed Christopher in a heroic way and left out the important history aspect of Columbus and exploration of Americans by the Europeans. He further state that these books focused on a virtuous image of Columbus and identifying him as the hero, instead of expressing the specifics about American history. As Bigelow (1989) acknowledged that his students knew that America was discovered by Christopher Columbus because this was written in their textbook and they were taught about it by their teachers in the lower grades. Furthermore, Leowen (1995) examined how the authors of traditional history presented Columbus and commented on how these books has misinformed people about the history of Native America. He did his analysis by criticising the stories (myths) which were told about Christopher Columbus.
Leowen’s (1995) criticism was based on the things that the American history textbook failed to acknowledge about the colonisation of Americans by Europeans before and after the arrival of Columbus.

He points out that most of the books tell history as if Columbus was the first person to go across the Atlantic Ocean and land in America. Hitherto, many European such as the Vikings landed in America before 1492(the arrival of Columbus). He further, states that most of these books focused only on the good things Columbus did in Europe after discovering America such as admiring the beauty of the Indians and how he befriend one of the local chiefs of the Native Americans who was not against him. In addition the introduction of the passage in the Land Of Promise according to Leowen (1995) it presented a myth because it contracts with what is written in Columbus’s journal when he arrived in America. This was a way of admiring and presenting Columbus as a hero, who succeed his voyage to America after experiencing very tough weather in the sea, Leowen

(1995).
Columbus was more like a claimant than a hero, he claimed that he discovered America when he first landed in the Caribbean, according to Zinn (1980), the first man to see land was supposed to get a pension for life and when Rodrigo called that he sees land Columbus claimed that he saw it before him than he got the reward. This showed how bad Columbus was, as he managed to intimidate people from his own country, thus for Columbus to say “I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men and govern them as I please” (Leowen, 1995, p.51) showed him as a villain who came to destroy Americans as the revisionist history believed.
In addition, Weatherford (1989) observed Columbus captured Indians slaves and transported them to Spain. However his ships were too small to carry all the slaves he captured. The other Indian were his workers, they worked in the mines digging gold and others were working in the fields planting for him (Columbus) and his cohorts. In addition, Weatherford (1989) points out that Columbus treated these Indians wickedly by raping, torturing and killing them for their (Spaniards) hunting dogs. This negative side of Columbus was concealed in the history textbooks which were written by the traditional historian. However history revisionist managed to reveal this hidden truth about Columbus, and alternatively it was a way of challenging the myths about Columbus.
“As a discipline , history is more subjective than some other disciplines in its interpretation and analysis of research, thus it is important for historian s to consider the moral ethics and professional responsibilities inherent with in teaching and writing about the history of Native Americans ” (Fixico 1996, p.30) . This quote implicate that the authors of the traditional history textbooks and the teachers who taught this form of history ignored the moral ethic about history as a discipline. In addition Fixico (1996) observed that American history has been presented inadequately because it was written by non- Indians and more based on the idea “that the conquers write history”. As Leowen (1995) declared that naturally the Spanish won over Americans. Thus the idea of writing American history about Europeans almost in every text book and take no notice of the native Indians who also played a role in history during that period, favoured the writers or the non-Indians.
Likewise there were historians and writers who followed the moral ethics of writing history of Native Americans such as Schuman, Schwartz and D’Arcy (2005), who came up with new evidence and presented Native American history in a different angle. Schuman, Schwartz and D’Arcy (2005) used different methods to analyse traditional history and to develop a different perspective of Native American history. They conducted surveys whereby they asked different Americans about the beliefs they had about Columbus, analysed some history textbooks and representations in the media about Columbus. This was one of the methods of challenging the myths about Christopher Columbus because during these surveys voices of the Native American Indians were heard as I have noted earlier that most of the history was written by non-Indians.
“In particular, the “rise of red power” ideology at the end of 1960s challenged the white views broadly and one effect was to question the assumption that Columbus Day was an occasion of celebration” (Schuman, Schwartz and D’Arcy, 2005, p. 8). People who questioned the celebration of Columbus where Indians according to Schwartz (2005) they started to ask questions and made criticism about the commemoration of Columbus by venting guilt over Columbus. This lead to the protest which took place in different college campuses, students were protesting against the positive commemoration of Columbus and, they were motivated by the revisionist historian. Thus this event somehow showed a challenge towards traditional history as Indians demanded better treatment.
In a nutshell the traditional myths about Columbus, where challenged as at the end, historians like Bigelow (1989) indicated that the people who might have discovered America where the Vikings. They further challenged Christopher’s myths by re-examination the information which was already available, according to Leowen (1995) most of this information was represented in the history textbooks he examined, thus the revisionist historians used the same information to develop new evidence that assisted them to challenge traditional myths. However, Schuman, Schwartz and D’Arcy (2005) showed that not everyone was challenging the traditional myths about Columbus because through the surveys they conducted the majority of the people they interviewed believed that Columbus was a hero of America. Nevertheless ,the revisionist and American Indians played a major role by challenging the myths as a results there are possibilities that as the times goes on Columbus reputation will be exterminated in future .The truth about the discovery of America will be revealed and the voices of Indigenous Americans will be presented in history of America.