I have learned a lot in reading the first part of the book, it has opened my eyes to how Indians look at everything and learning about their history and what has happened to them when the Europeans came. When I was reading about how when Columbus first landed in Espanola which is present day Haiti and The Dominican Republic. When it talked about how there was originally two million people on the island. When I read that the men that were left on the island had been killed by the native people, I thought to myself about what was going to happen to the native people of Espanola. As I read further and found out that when the Europeans found out about their men being killed they demanded that the everyone bring gold, and if they didn’t there hands would be cut off. I thought that is was crazy that people could do that to others. As I read more on page 29 and it told us that people would drink cassava poison and commit suicide instead of getting there hands cut off.
What these people had to go through just because someone discovered your homeland is sad. The people of the island of Espanola had been living in peace for a long time and then Columbus showed up and everything the knew was turned upside down.
jcramos June 14, 2018
Zach I agree with how sad this time was for the native people. it is really crazy how people would kill themselves instead of getting their hands chopped off. I would hate it as much as they did if someone came into my state and started sexually assaulting our women and chopping off hands. I stand with you on how altered our minds are on Christopher Columbus “achievement”. We could all learn from this book on the DARK truth of what really happened to the native people who were here first. Looking forward to reading this book and seeing your groups presentations.
zjross June 14, 2018
I agree that the Indians should not have had to go through the pain and suffering they went through. They actually went through more than just pain and suffering they were killing themselves so they didn’t have to get their hands cut off. It’s crazy to think that just because the Europeans came over to Espanola it flipped their whole world upside down. They were peacefully living until the Europeans had to come take over in brutal ways. I feel that everyone should know that Columbus is not a good man for finding our country, he had to kill people to find our country.