It’s time to recognize that celebrating the life of Christopher Columbus also celebrates the erasure of Indigenous existence.

While there is a growing movement around the country to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, more work remains to be done.

We are excited to share some local and national events celebrating Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Peoples Day. 

Source: culturalsurvival.org

So, this year, it was not lost on me how Washington State sort of remained quiet this year. Yes, there are commercials and festive activities locally. However, not only was columbus day absent from School District calendars, but not much was said about Indigenous Day, and it wasn’t on a School calendar either

Nativegrl77

In 1665 and 1666, the last great outbreak of bubonic plague to hit England swept through the capital, London. The outbreak was much smaller in scale than the Black Death of the 14th century, but was still notable for having killed as many as 100,000 people – about a quarter of the city’s population – in eighteen months.

By July 1665 the plague was spreading rapidly in London. Many fled, including the King Charles II, if they were wealthy enough to afford it. Parliament was moved to Oxford University from Westminster Palace. Many of the city’s businesses closed. Diarist Samuel Pepys wrote much about life in the city during the plague, and of empty streets.

By September, as many as 7,000 people a week were dying, and many were thrown into mass graves. The true toll was likely to be much higher, since the deaths of poor were not recorded.

The University of Cambridge closed down during the outbreak, forcing a young Isaac Newton to continue his studies from home – during this time he expanded significantly on his new idea about the laws of gravity, among other things.

By November the outbreak started to taper off, and the King returned in February the next year when it was considered to be safe enough. Disaster would strike London again in 1666, with much of it being destroyed in the Great Fire of London that September.

The 21st century saw the dawn of the war on terrorism, as the 9/11 attacks and the Boston Marathon bombing dramatically changed society. Economic issues moved to the forefront during the Great Recession. The COVID-19 pandemic upended lives and economies around the world. Awareness of social inequality grew as the killings of Black Americans, including Trayvon Martin and George Floyd, spurred widespread protests.

Source: history.com

On October 5, 1775, General George Washington writes to the president of the Continental Congress, John Hancock, to inform him that a letter from Dr. Benjamin Church, surgeon general of the Continental Army, to Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Gage, British commander in chief for North America, had been intercepted. Washington wrote, “I have now a painful tho’ a Necessary Duty to perform respecting Doctor Church, Director General of the Hospital.”

Washington described how a coded letter to a British officer, Major Crane, came into Washington’s possession by a convoluted route from “a Woman who was kept by Doctor Church.” Washington “immediately secured the Woman, but for a long time she was proof against every threat and perswasion[sic] to discover the Author, however, at length she was brought to a confession and named Doctor Church. I then immediately secured him and all his papers.”

The woman Washington interrogated was the mistress of Dr. Benjamin Church, a renowned Boston physician, who was active in the Massachusetts Committee of Safety and served as a member of the Provincial Congress. In July 1775, Washington had named Church the first surgeon general of the Continental Army, only to find out three months later that he had been spying for the British since 1772. Church faced an army court martial on October 4, 1775.

Source: history.com