This letter is in response to the one written by Andy Volpert concerning Christopher Columbus.

Mr. Volpert mentioned a need to respond to the hate-filled rhetoric pertaining to Christopher Columbus. I would like to know which newspaper he has been reading. I haven’t read anything hate-filled, only letters and editorials for the purpose of re-education. Mr. Volpert writes that the Friends of Native Americans should take a moment of silence for the Tainos who were enslaved, tortured and eaten by their rivals, the Caribs, as opposed to those who where destroyed by Christopher Columbus. However, we don’t celebrate Carib Day.

Mr. Volpert writes that Columbus was not responsible for the slave trade of Indians, and that he captured only a few Tainos them set them free to spread his message. That’s a nice thought, but unfortunately untrue.

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Columbus quote in his log Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold, and All the inhabitants could be taken away to Castile or made slaves on the island. With fifty men, we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. This information is available in Columbus’ own journals and letters and the writings of the Spanish priest Bartolome de le Casas, one of the most qualified of all the 16th century chroniclers.

Columbus was not on a religious campaign. He wanted riches and titles. His search for gold was devastating. He ordered every Indian 14 years and older to deliver a regular quota of gold. Those who failed had their hands chopped off. In two years of the Columbus regime about one quarter of a million people died.

I can understand why Mr. Volpert might think this was a religious campaign. It is reminiscent of the treatment of native peoples by religious powers in the past and present.

To think of someone in the College of Education having these beliefs and spreading them is very sad.

Spokesperson, Illinois American Indian Movement