Transform Columbus Day CO
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A Denver-based collective of young Indigenous women representing a diverse range of Indigenous Nations and Peoples have come together to revive the All Nations Four Directions March and protest of the Columbus Day holiday in Denver. The Four Directions March will take place in honor of Troylynn Star Yellow Wood, who lives on in the spirit of the People.
From Standing Rock to Bear Butte, Devils Tower, Oak Flat, Black Mesa, the San Francisco Peaks, Desert Rock, Tar Sands, Mauna Kea, and hundreds of other locations of spiritual significance, the life and death struggle of the original nations and peoples of the so-called Americas continues in 2016. The racist idea-system of domination, exploitation and environmental degradation in the name of infinite greed was established through the Christian Doctrine of Discovery after the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The celebration of the Columbus Day Holiday is a symptom of the imagined belief that the illegal invaders of this continent, primarily European colonists, inherited a divine right to violently control and politically disenfranchise the ancient and sophisticated societies that were born of Turtle Island ("North America"), and Abya Yala ("the Americas"). The oppressive legacy of Columbus does not end with Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala, but extends to the descendants of African slaves whose ancestors were terrorized, captured, raped and stolen from their homelands to be bought and sold as property. Christopher Columbus personally established and profited from the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and we see the continued oppression of our Black sisters and brothers in the U.S. as a direct consequence of said slavery.
This year the American Indian Movement and Transform Columbus Day Alliance honor Representative Joe Salazar for authoring, sponsoring and ushering in HB 16-1135 to change the name of the Columbus Day Holiday in Colorado to Indigenous Peoples Day. His consciousness of our Peoples history and marginalization is heroic. We are also grateful to Representative Su Ryden and Representative Susan Lontine for supporting the bill; their stances of courage in the face of racism have not gone unnoticed in our communities.
Inversely, we are disdained and disappointed with Representative Mike Foote,Representative Dianne Primavera, Representative Max Tyler, Representative Stephen Humphrey, Representative Tim Leonard, Representative Patrick Neville, and Representative Cole Wist who all voted against the bill, effectively killing it and preserving the systems of white supremacy that Columbus represents to many communities-of-color.
We call on Native communities and our non-Native relatives to march with us this year, and to come out in support of future legislation to repeal the Columbus Day Holiday, as well as all movements of Indigenous Resistance.
The details for the Four Directions March are as follows:
SATURDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2016, MEET at 11:30 AM, STEP OFF at 12:30 PM:
NORTH DIRECTION meets at Cleo Parker Robinson School of Dance
(119 Park Ave West), WEAR RED
EAST DIRECTION meets at Cheesman Park
(12th Ave & Franklin St), WEAR YELLOW
SOUTH DIRECTION meets at Four Winds American Indian Council
(201 W 5th Ave), WEAR WHITE
WEST DIRECTION meets at Auraria Campus
WEAR BLACK
RALLY at CAPITOL at 1:30 PM, with KEYNOTE SPEAKER PHYLLIS YOUNG (Standing Rock Sioux Nation)
Following rally, a meal provided at Four Winds American Indian Council at 4 PM.
*****
This campaign will support the mobilization around legislation to end the Columbus Day Holiday in the place of its birth here in Colorado. We have a long-term vision for what this mobilization will look like in the future.
The first action resisting the Columbus Legacy from this campaign will be the Four Directions March and Rock-Out Columbus Day concert, both of which will take place on October 8th, 2016. For this action, we need funds to support materials for the march, an honorarium for our keynote speaker, gas money for performers and spiritual leaders coming from afar, t-shirts, etc.
This campaign benefits the education of local communities about the aforementioned issues that have resulted from the continued application of the Christian Doctrine of Discovery in the so-called Americas, and across the globe.
From Standing Rock to Bear Butte, Devils Tower, Oak Flat, Black Mesa, the San Francisco Peaks, Desert Rock, Tar Sands, Mauna Kea, and hundreds of other locations of spiritual significance, the life and death struggle of the original nations and peoples of the so-called Americas continues in 2016. The racist idea-system of domination, exploitation and environmental degradation in the name of infinite greed was established through the Christian Doctrine of Discovery after the arrival of Christopher Columbus. The celebration of the Columbus Day Holiday is a symptom of the imagined belief that the illegal invaders of this continent, primarily European colonists, inherited a divine right to violently control and politically disenfranchise the ancient and sophisticated societies that were born of Turtle Island ("North America"), and Abya Yala ("the Americas"). The oppressive legacy of Columbus does not end with Indigenous Peoples of Abya Yala, but extends to the descendants of African slaves whose ancestors were terrorized, captured, raped and stolen from their homelands to be bought and sold as property. Christopher Columbus personally established and profited from the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and we see the continued oppression of our Black sisters and brothers in the U.S. as a direct consequence of said slavery.
This year the American Indian Movement and Transform Columbus Day Alliance honor Representative Joe Salazar for authoring, sponsoring and ushering in HB 16-1135 to change the name of the Columbus Day Holiday in Colorado to Indigenous Peoples Day. His consciousness of our Peoples history and marginalization is heroic. We are also grateful to Representative Su Ryden and Representative Susan Lontine for supporting the bill; their stances of courage in the face of racism have not gone unnoticed in our communities.
Inversely, we are disdained and disappointed with Representative Mike Foote,Representative Dianne Primavera, Representative Max Tyler, Representative Stephen Humphrey, Representative Tim Leonard, Representative Patrick Neville, and Representative Cole Wist who all voted against the bill, effectively killing it and preserving the systems of white supremacy that Columbus represents to many communities-of-color.
We call on Native communities and our non-Native relatives to march with us this year, and to come out in support of future legislation to repeal the Columbus Day Holiday, as well as all movements of Indigenous Resistance.
The details for the Four Directions March are as follows:
SATURDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2016, MEET at 11:30 AM, STEP OFF at 12:30 PM:
NORTH DIRECTION meets at Cleo Parker Robinson School of Dance
(119 Park Ave West), WEAR RED
EAST DIRECTION meets at Cheesman Park
(12th Ave & Franklin St), WEAR YELLOW
SOUTH DIRECTION meets at Four Winds American Indian Council
(201 W 5th Ave), WEAR WHITE
WEST DIRECTION meets at Auraria Campus
WEAR BLACK
RALLY at CAPITOL at 1:30 PM, with KEYNOTE SPEAKER PHYLLIS YOUNG (Standing Rock Sioux Nation)
Following rally, a meal provided at Four Winds American Indian Council at 4 PM.
*****
This campaign will support the mobilization around legislation to end the Columbus Day Holiday in the place of its birth here in Colorado. We have a long-term vision for what this mobilization will look like in the future.
The first action resisting the Columbus Legacy from this campaign will be the Four Directions March and Rock-Out Columbus Day concert, both of which will take place on October 8th, 2016. For this action, we need funds to support materials for the march, an honorarium for our keynote speaker, gas money for performers and spiritual leaders coming from afar, t-shirts, etc.
This campaign benefits the education of local communities about the aforementioned issues that have resulted from the continued application of the Christian Doctrine of Discovery in the so-called Americas, and across the globe.
Organizer
Sky Roosevelt-Morris
Organizer
Denver, CO