Giving the First Nations People some long overdue respect

Today Newstead joins other enlightened cities in celebrating Indigenous People's Day.

We have been taught a rosy view of Cristobol Colon (aka Christopher Columbus) and it is high time we started telling the truth about how Western European nations treated the First Nations peoples.

Read the writings of Bartholomew de las Casas on what he saw.
Read Colon's own writings - "These people will make great slaves."
No thank you.

Read Howard Zinn's  A People's History of the United States for a different perspective on settlement.

There is also Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States (ReVisioning American History).


Thank you to Don Esmonde for highlighting the great work that Justin Rooney did in bringing this change around.


Newstead prepares for its first Indigenous Peoples Day on Monday

And let us celebrate the hard work of the Seneca Nation with the renaming of "Squaw Island."
It is now "Unity Island" or Ga’nigo:i:yoh, pronounced ga’-nego-e-yah Island in the Seneca language.

There was a great article in the paper on Friday or Saturday.  This one will have to do for now.