Today Should Always Be Called Indigenous Peoples Day

"Two principal and general customs have been employed by those, calling themselves Christians, who have passed this way, in extirpating and striking from the face of the earth those suffering nations. The first being unjust, cruel, bloody, and tyrannical warfare. The other, after having slain all those who might yearn toward or suspire after or think of freedom, or consider escaping from the torments that they are made to suffer, by which I mean all the native-born lords and adult males,"

"The cause for which the Christians have slain and destroyed so many and such infinite numbers of souls, has been simply to get, as their ultimate end, the Indians' gold of them, and to stuff themselves with riches in a very few days, and to raise themselves to high estates without proportion to their birth or breeding, it should be noted owing to the insatiable greed and ambition that they have had, which has been greater than any the world has ever seen before."

"[A]ll the Indians of all the Indies never once did aught hurt or wrong to Christians, but rather held them to be descended from heaven, from the sky, until many times they or their neighbours received from the Christians many acts of wrongful harm, theft, murder, violence, and vexation."

Spanish conquest employed two brutal customs: indiscriminate, tyrannical warfare and the systematic slaughter of native leaders and adult men while sparing and enslaving boys and women. Survivors were bound in extreme, dehumanizing bondage and subjected to persistent theft, murder, and violence. The primary motive for these atrocities was to seize Indigenous gold and rapid enrichment, driven by insatiable greed and ambition. Indigenous peoples had not harmed Christians and often regarded them as divine, yet they endured repeated, escalating acts of wrongful harm. The result was catastrophic loss of life, freedom, and social order across the Indies.

Read at www.esquire.com