NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH

November has been designated by Congress as Native American Heritage Month. The sad thing is it comes every year in the wake  of Columbus Day,  a federal holiday that honors the Italian mariner, who arrived in the Americas in 1492, and claimed it for the Spanish Court. History books lionize Columbus’ discovery, giving virtually no recognition to the millions of indigenous people, who already lived in the Americas, and failing to acknowledge the abuse and murder of millions of native people by Columbus and European plunderers that arrived in the years that followed. There is much that history books fail to acknowledge about native peoples and their very important contributions to the world.  In fact, Thomas Jefferson drew heavily on the example of democratic governance provided by the Great Binding Laws of the Iroquois Confederacy that date back several centuries before the U.S. Constitution was written. Here is a link to the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian webpage for Native American History Month…  http://nativeamericanheritagemonth.gov/