Howard Zinn Http Assignment 2 What Is History
Assignment #2 – What is History?
Step 1: Read – “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress,”
found in the book A People’s History of the
United States by Howard Zinn
Step 2: Read – “1493: The True Importance of Christopher
Columbus,” from the book Lies My Teacher
Told Me
(File below)
Step 3: Complete the Discussion Board
Discussion Prompt:
So, how many of you, one of the first words that came to mind when
thinking about how Native Americans have been portrayed to you in
other classes (thinking all the way back to elementary school) was
SAVAGES?
How many of you thought about small groups of half-naked people
whooping and hollering while dancing around a fire outside of a teepee?
Most people in my classes, this is their recollection of previous
teachings on Native America. Surprising?
So what if I were to tell you that instead of the handful of Natives
here in the Americas, there were actually as many as 120 million of
them in 1492? That this population size was equal to that found in
Europe at that time?
What if I told you that these “savages” lived in cities–sophisticated
cities, many more sophisticated than Paris, France at that time. Not
just the Incas or the Mayans either, there were cities all over the
Americas. That the Americas are home to the greatest
number of pyramids in the world…that the largest pyramid in the world
is actually in the Americas not in Egypt, and that one side of the base
of this pyramid measures a half mile in length? And that it has just
been discovered within the last 10 years because it had been literally
swallowed up by the Amazon jungle?
Did any of you know all of this? Most of my students are
dumbfounded by these revelations.
And if I were to ask you to name something foundational to this
country that we have adopted from Native America, how many of
you could give me an answer?
I ask you all of these things as we continue our discussions of the
“discoverer” of America, Christopher Columbus, for a reason. Was he
truly the discoverer of this land? Were there other foreigners who
came here long before Columbus? Why don’t we celebrate the AfroPhoenicians (Africans) as “discoverers” of America? Or the Chinese?
For that matter, why do we celebrate a “discoverer” at all when there
were already 120 million people living here?
Why do we not celebrate Native Americans as one of the great
“founders” of this country as we do Columbus, or the Pilgrims, or
Washington, Jefferson, etc? Are they not part of our foundations?
How would James Loewen explain this?
Especially since much of our ideas about democracy actually come
from Native Americans?
YES, DEMOCRACY….one of the ideas that makes up the very
foundations of this country comes from the Iroquois Confederacy.
I would bet very few of you knew this….
What are your thoughts about all of this? What other issues came up
for you in your readings and the lecture?