October 11, 2024
History and Leadership: Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day
By Ken Giglio, Principal of Mindful Leadership
You cannot go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending – C.S. Lewis
When I was in grade school, I learned the Indigenous Peoples, “Indians,” who lived in what is now New York City willingly handed over to the Dutch the entire five boroughs for the equivalent of $24 in shells and trinkets. I also learned Christopher Columbus “discovered” the “New World” in 1492, and he encountered “Indians,” whom he somehow nicely negotiated with to use their lands (present-day Bahamas) for mutually beneficial purposes.
Of course, I know this is all nonsense. There are many solid historical accounts you can access of what really occurred. In short, the sunny, happy versions of Europeans greeting and befriending the Native Peoples is a biased narrative from mostly unreliable European narrators who were looking for profit first and foremost. Conquest was their way, and those who had lived in North and South America for thousands of years were in their way. The Indigenous tribes that survived the initial onslaughts of the explorers had to adapt to a forever changed world.
It is important to learn, and re-learn, our American History because it shapes our present day in how we see ourselves and in how we live together.
Monday, October 14th, 2024 is Indigenous Peoples’ Day. We acknowledge and celebrate the day together with the indigenous peoples in our communities. I have written previously about this important holiday because it is essential to know our past fully with all its present-day ramifications. And, I believe the leaders of today and tomorrow who intend to build inclusive cultures should educate themselves about history and “start wherever they are to change the endings.”
(Also, keep in mind November is Native American Heritage Month.)