Columbus and Genocide: Re-educating Yecke

Minnesota's Education Commissioner says that, while Christopher Columbus' men brought diseases that wiped out tens of millions of Native Americans, she doesn't "characterize that as genocide." Criticism of the comment has been appropriately fierce. Activist Clyde Bellecourt says Cheri Pierson Yecke "is totally scholastically retarded," and Chris Mato Nunpa of Southwest Minnesota State University listed the terrors inflicted on indigenous Americans: the use of armored dogs to rip Indians apart, cutting off the hands of those who couldn't meet gold quotas, and using Indians for sword practice. "Genocide happened," Mato Nunpa said. "Western Europeans and Euro-Americans were extremely efficient killers of indigenous peoples. It is shameful that a person such as Ms. Yecke is so ignorant and yet is in such a powerful and influential position." This might be a good place for the Education Commissioner to start.