Oct. 12: Credit Asians, not Columbus, for the "discovery" of the Americas

Once and for all: Asians 'discovered' the Americas by crossing the land bridge connecting
what is now known as Siberia and North America

Perhaps the greatest example of how history has been warped to support the illusion of white people as "saviors" is the way most of the U.S. still celebrate Oct. 12 as Columbus Day.

We are taught in our grade school history lessons the rhyme, "In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue ..."

Actually, Columbus didn't discover the Americas. He sort of bumped into it on his way to China. He mistakenly thought the Caribbean islands he "discovered" were part of the mystical land of China and India. In his ignorance, he dubbed the native people he met as "Indios" because he thought they were from India. 

There were already hundreds of millions of people living in the two continents when Columbus accidentally "discovered" the new world.

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If any group of people should be credited with discovering the two continents we presently call North and South America, it should go to the ancient Asians who trekked across an ancient, now sunken land bridge connecting Alaska with Siberia.

Archaeological and DNA evidence lends credence to the adventurous Asians seeking new hunting grounds as the discoverers of this new land. Through the millennia the hunter-gatherers followed the game and sought warmer climes in North, Central and South America.

There are other theories out there about who discovered the Americas: We know that the Vikings established a settlement in Nova Scotia at least 5 centuries before Columbus; by following DNA, there is the theory that Polynesians had relations with Native Americans around 1280 AD; and one historian claims there is evidence that Chinese explorers landed on California shores in 1300 BC and left behind graffiti scrawled on boulders.

But it is Columbus' arrival that changed the world, but not necessarily in a good way: Millions of indigenous people died; survivors were enslaved; civilizations tumbled down; histories erased;  but you won't find those lessons in your textbooks which continue to teach a one-dimensional Eurocentric version of history.

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