The other day I was doing a little thinking during one of my naps about  Christopher Columbus and Indigenous People. After straining to stay on task, the misrepresentation these people face in our holidays and history textbooks became apparent. It's disgusting. Native Americans deserve far more representation and respect than they receive now. This is especially true considering how such a cruel man as Columbus can have a whole day to himself (7 whole days if we're talking in dog years). If Columbus can have his own special day, how come "the thousands of years of indigenous civilization that existed before European colonization," are practically ignored in textbooks and do not have their own holiday (Donnella)? These are the 

  people that are responsible for first living in North America and were mistreated by white men. You see, the truth about the Native Americans cannot try to be covered up or ignored, it must be embraced and fully accepted as part of our history. Whether Americans are embarrassed to admit to the ugly truth, it is not fair to the Indigenous People, or ourselves that "we rarely acknowledge Native Americans as participants in broad American historical events"(Donnella). 

          It's like when a family with a mutt moves out and a new family with a different dog moves in. The new dog may be a purebred and have high values and be honored by the American Kennel Club, but the old dog has left its mark. Its scents are still there. The stuck-up purebred may try to mark its territory and mask the old dog's tracks as much as possible, but there will always be a subtle trace of the friendly mutt that used to roam the same yard and torment the same squirrels. It will be remembered. It deserves to be remembered. The positive parts deserve to be celebrated and the devastating parts deserve to be acknowledged.