year was 1492. The Taino-Arawak people of the Bahamas discovered Christopher Columbus on their beach.

Historian Howard Zinn tells us how Arawak men and women, naked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts. Columbus later wrote of this in his log. Here is what he wrote:

"They brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks' bells. They willingly traded everything they owned. They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of sugar cane. They would make fine servants. With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want."

And so the conquest began, and the Thanotocracy -- the regime of death -- was inaugurated on the continent the Indians called "Turtle Island."

You probably already know a good piece of the story: How Columbus's Army took Arawak and Taino people prisoners and insisted that they take him to the source of their gold, which they used in tiny ornaments in their ears. And how, with utter contempt and cruelty, Columbus took many more Indians prisoners and put them aboard the Nina and the Pinta -- the Santa Maria having run aground on the island of Hispañola (today, the Dominican Republic and Haiti). When some refused to be taken prisoner, they were run through with swords and bled to death. Then the Nina and the Pinta set sail for the Azores and Spain. During the long voyage, many of the Indian prisoners died. Here's part of Columbus's report to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain:

"The Indians are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone." Columbus concluded his report by asking for a little help from the King and Queen, and in return he would bring them "as much gold as they need, and as many slaves as they ask."

Columbus returned to the New World -- "new" for Europeans, that is -- with 17 ships and more than 1,200 men. Their aim was clear: Slaves, and gold. They went from island to island in the Caribbean, taking Indians as captives. But word spread ahead of them. By the time they got to Fort Navidad on Haiti, the Taino had risen up and killed all the sailors left behind on the last voyage, after they had roamed the island in gangs raping women and taking children and women as slaves. Columbus later wrote: "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold." The Indians began fighting back, but were no match for the Spaniard conquerors, even though they greatly outnumbered them. In eight years, Columbus's men murdered more than 100,000 Indians on Haiti alone. Overall, dying as slaves in the mines, or directly murdered, or from diseases brought to the Caribbean by the Spaniards, over 3 million Indian people were murdered between 1494 and 1508.

What Columbus did to the Arawaks of the Bahamas and the Taino of the Caribbean, Cortez did to the Aztecs of Mexico, Pizarro to the Incas of Peru, and the English settlers of Virginia and Massachusetts to the Powhatans and the Pequots. Literally millions of native peoples were slaughtered. And the gold, slaves and other resources were used, in Europe, to spur the growth of the new money economy rising out of feudalism. Karl Marx would later call this "the primitive accumulation of capital." These were the violent beginnings of an intricate system of technology, business, politics and culture that would dominate the world for the next five centuries.

All of this were the preconditions for the first Thanksgiving. In the North American English colonies, the pattern was set early, as Columbus had set it in the islands of the Bahamas. In 1585, before there was any permanent English settlement in Virginia, Richard Grenville landed there with seven ships. The Indians he met were hospitable, but when one of them stole a small silver cup, Grenville sacked and burned the whole Indian village.

The Jamestown colony was established in Virginia in 1607, inside the territory of an Indian confederacy, led by the chief, Powhatan. Powhatan watched the English settle on his people's land, but did not attack. And the English began starving. Some of them ran away and joined the Indians, where they would at least be fed. Indeed, throughout colonial times tens of thousands of indentured servants, prisoners and slaves -- from Wales and Scotland as well as from Africa -- ran away to live in Indian communities, intermarry, and raise their children there.

In the summer of 1610 the governor of Jamestown colony asked Powhatan to return the runaways, who were living fully among the Indians. Powhatan left the choice to those who ran away, and none wanted to go back. The governor of Jamestown then sent soldiers to take revenge. They descended on an Indian community, killed 15 or 16 Indians, burned the houses, cut down the corn growing around the village, took the female leader of the tribe and her children into boats, then ended up throwing the children overboard and shooting out their brains in the water. The female leader was later taken off the boat and stabbed to death.

By 1621, the atrocities committed by the English had grown, and word spread throughout the Indian villages. The Indians fought back, and killed 347 colonists. From then on it was total war. Not able to enslave the Indians the English aristocracy decided to exterminate them.

And then the Pilgrims arrived
http://www.counterpunch.org/cohen11272003.html

And now they have CASINOS.

I am half Native and I love Thanksgiving.It's about family,food and giving thanks for your blessings.What's done is done so let's move on.Human history is full of one race conquering another and taking lands.Get over it.

Well said! Enjoy!

You too.:)

Great statement.

As has happened throughout history, the point of holidays shifts over time. Thanksgiving as a holiday really isn't that old. And we have already shifted the point and focus.

The only time you see anything to do with Columbus associated with the holiday is if you have or know primary school kids.

The real focus of the holiday, for all practical intent and purpose, is to celebrate family and friendship.

My friends and I just had our thanksgiving yesterday. The whole point was to enjoy the people we have in our lives.

They earliest 'official' thanksgivings were actually days of prayer and being thankful for what God has provided and didn't actually pay any lip service to Columbus anyway. This was before it finally got made a national holiday. Used to be presidents individually called for a one time holiday as they saw fit.

It was also used to create a sense of national unity. Lincoln finally made it a national holiday. Probably part of trying to rebuild a country torn apart.

Linking it to the Indians coming and keeping the Plymouth settlers from starting to death the first winter was added latter, I think.

Sorry, I just can't find the exact data on that. Wanted to have something concrete there, but source just want to go back to the psuedo-mythical first thanksgiving. Or to harvest festivals in general and I don't think Greco-Roman feasts for Diana are what I'm looking for!

Anyaway, Columbus was a rotten bastard but has really had nothing to do with the real reasons for Thanksgiving.

Thank you for that!! I too love Thanksgiving. It is not always about what has happened (though we should never forget) but where we are today. Happy T-Day!!

I love all holidays as they are about family, friends and what not. What happened centuries ago isn't my business. If we base holidays on actions from many years ago, we wouldnt have a holiday left.

Let's give thanks for what we have now, not hate holidays fro something that happened long before our time.

I am also part native american.

I would also like to pint out that thanksgiving didnt start until after all that. The earliest being 1565 but it didnt really become a tradition until 1621. Well after 1492, so While what they did was tragic it had no bearing on thanksgiving at all.

They have a huge protest in Plymouth every year. The news does not want to cover though. Nationally at least. I am sure thier is plenty on the net about it.. what isn't on the net