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Indigenous People #255 By Hank Silverberg This Monday we celebrate Indigenous People's day here in the United States. It's a commemoration of the culture and lives of 50 to 100 million or so people who occupied North and South America before Columbus began the exploitation of them starting in 1492. The holiday in October used to be called Columbus Day, but his star faded as the real story of the famed explorer started creeping into history books just a few decades ago. When Columbus landed on Hispaniola in the Caribbean, he was seeking fame and fortune. He got the fame, but the fortune eluded him. But not before he enslaved many of the local population and destroyed their political and social structure. (Zuni Adobe, in American Southwest, Courtesy National Achieves ) Columbus was soon followed by t he Conquistadors on the mainland who did even more damage. If you ever studied the real history of the Americas, you know that indigenous people