Bartolomé de Las Casas: “Devastation of the Indies: A Brief Account”

Article. By Bill Bigelow. If We Knew Our History series.
As the debate about taking down statues and monuments grows, we also need to challenge the fundamental structures of ownership, power, and privilege that have given us such a skewed constellation of heroes and holidays.

This erasure of huge swaths of humanity is a fundamental feature of the school curriculum, but also of the broader mainstream political discourse. We usually think about the curriculum as what is taught in school. But as important — perhaps more important — is what is not taught, which includes the lives rendered invisible.

Teaching Guide. Edited by Bill Bigelow and Bob Peterson. Rethinking Schools. 2003. 192 pages.
Readings and lessons for grades 5 to 12 about the impact and legacy of the arrival of Columbus in the Americas.

Film. By Paul Puglisi. 2017. 89 minutes.
Documentary on the symbol of Columbus in the United States and the campaign for Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

Hatuey was a freedom fighter in the early 1500s who mobilized Caribbean islanders against invasion, theft, and murder by European conquistadors.