Columbus Quincentennial Resolution

Adopted at 1990 Annual Conference

WHEREAS: A Presidential Commission is planning a massive celebration to take place in 1992 on the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage, with festivities including a trip to Mars by three solar-powered "space caravels," the sale of commemorative coins, and a scholarship program designed to "both honor the achievements of Columbus and encourage young people who embody his spirit and accomplishments to carry forward his legacy into the next century,"

AND WHEREAS: Columbus's voyage to America began a legacy of European piracy, brutality, slave trading, murder, disease, conquest, and ethnocide, and, further, engendered the Native American Holocaust which saw a population of over 5,000,000 American Indians in the land area of the United States decline to about 250,000 by the last decade of the 19th century,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT: The American Library Association urge libraries to provide Columbus Quincentennial programs and materials which examine the event from an authentic Native American perspective, dealing directly with topics like cultural imperialism, colonialism, and the Native American Holocaust.

SRRT Newsletter Issue 97, p. 2