To most, Columbus Day is a celebration of the founding of America. However, members of the SIUC Friends For Native Americans say Columbus represents strife native people had to endure.

A Re-thinking Columbus Day Rally, sponsored by the group, will be held today from 1-4 p.m. in the campus Free Forum area to address this strife, group members said.

Mark Denzer, president of FFNA said people’s opinions of Columbus are misconstrued.

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Columbus was not a hero, Denzer said. He was in fact a hero of genocide. He was welcomed at first (by the Native Americans), and he didn’t accept that welcome. He rejected it, then made them into slaves and murdered half their people.

The rally will include speakers discussing Native American issues. A local band, Organic Rain, and a theatrical re-enactment of what group members said occurred when Columbus first arrived. A moment of silence for the ancestors of the Tainos people, the native people Columbus originally encountered, is also scheduled.

Denzer said he hopes to convey what really happened when Columbus arrived.

I hope they get the message of what our true history is, Denzer said. That Columbus and the others that came after him were not heroes.

Denzer said he expects the rally to be effective with a high attendance.

I think it’s going to be pretty good, he said. I think people are going to come together.

Another group member, Corinne Willi, said she hopes people will re-consider what they learned about Columbus in early school years.

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I would hope people would re-think what they have learned, Willi said. They’re only getting half of a glorified story. We just want people to reconsider. It’s not a completely accurate depiction of what really happened.