INDIGENOUS PEOPLE’S DAY (COLUMBUS DAY): NATIONWIDE PERFORMANCES OF VOICES

On October 12, 2009 — widely celebrated as Columbus Day, but known to many as Indigenous People’s Day -- we urge you to perform your own reading of Voices of a People’s History of the United States.

We hope this will become an annual event in communities, schools, and theaters around the country.

There is no more glaring distortion in the history learned by generations of Americans — in textbooks, in schools, in the popular culture — than in the story of Christopher Columbus.

So we start every reading of Voices with a selection from Bartolomé de Las Casas, who wrote about the abuses committed by Columbus in his search for gold, slaves, and land for the King and Queen of Spain.

And we encourage you to turn the traditional teaching of U.S. history — and often uncritical celebration of Columbus Day — on its head by giving expression to the voices so often excluded from the story of Columbus and of the United States.

To find out more about how to organize your own reading on or near Columbus Day — or any other time — visit our Organizers page.