[hanamizu]

“...others horrified by an annual tribute that ignores native people whose lives and culture were forever changed by colonialism.”

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Well, that’s a shame. But the fact is that the Americas were destined to be discovered by Europeans sooner or later whether or not Columbus had ever been born.

Pedro Alveres Cabral, sailing for the real Indies got blown off course to the coast of Brazil. This was in 1500, only 8 years after Columbus. And as soon as the ‘native people’ were exposed to European technology and European diseases, they were doomed as a culture and as a people.

It’s sad, but there it is. But of course we shouldn’t let facts get in the way of ‘our truth’, should we?
/s

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

If an advanced civilization of American Indians had discovered a stone age Europe they would have done the same. Difference is they they would have brought those same European diseases back to the Americas wiping out much of their population.

[MinorityRepublican]

And as soon as the ‘native people’ were exposed to European technology and European diseases, they were doomed as a culture and as a people.

The Natives did not innovate as a civilization. So they became stagnant. Was it fair? No. But because they had no immunity to European diseases, their days were numbered.