<P> But too many of the slaves died in captivity . And so Columbus, desperate to pay back dividends to those who had invested, had to make good his promise to fill the ships with gold . In the province of Cicao on Haiti, where he and his men believed huge gold fields to exist, they ordered all persons fourteen years or older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months . When they brought it, they were given copper tokens to hang around their necks . American Indians found without a copper token had their hands cut off and bled to death . </P> <P> Most criticisms combine elements of both strains . Journalist and media critic Norman Solomon reflects, in Columbus Day: A Clash of Myth and History, that many people choose to hold on to the myths surrounding Columbus, whereas historians who deal with the evidence are frequently depicted as "politically correct" revisionists . He quotes from the logbook Columbus's initial description of the American Indians: "They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance...They would make fine servants...With 50 men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want". In 1495, during the Second Voyage, American Indians were transported to Spain as slaves, many dying en route . "Let us in the name of the Holy Trinity", Columbus later wrote, "go on sending all the slaves that can be sold". Solomon states that the most important contemporary documentary evidence is the multi-volume History of the Indies by the Catholic priest Bartolomé de las Casas, who observed the region where Columbus was governor . In contrast to "the myth" Solomon quotes Las Casas, who describes Spaniards driven by "insatiable greed"--"killing, terrorizing, afflicting, and torturing the native peoples" with "the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty" and how systematic violence was aimed at preventing "(American) Indians from daring to think of themselves as human beings ." The Spaniards "thought nothing of knifing (American) Indians by tens and twenties and of cutting slices off them to test the sharpness of their blades," wrote Las Casas . "My eyes have seen these acts so foreign to human nature, and now I tremble as I write". </P> <P> In the summer of 1990, 350 representatives from American Indian groups from all over the hemisphere, met in Quito, Ecuador, at the first Intercontinental Gathering of Indigenous People in the Americas, to mobilize against the 500th anniversary (quin - centennial) celebration of Columbus Day planned for 1992 . The following summer, in Davis, California, more than a hundred Native Americans gathered for a follow - up meeting to the Quito conference . They declared October 12, 1992 to be "International Day of Solidarity with Indigenous People". The largest ecumenical body in the United States, the National Council of Churches, called on Christians to refrain from celebrating the Columbus quincentennial, saying, "What represented newness of freedom, hope, and opportunity for some was the occasion for oppression, degradation and genocide for others". Among the latest places in the United States to redefine how they would celebrate the holiday to the title "Indigenous Peoples' Day" by the autumn of 2016 include communities in Massachusetts, specifically Cambridge, Amherst and Northampton, with a group naming itself the "Indigenous Peoples' Day of Massachusetts" currently attempting to do the same for the state's capital city of Boston . </P> <P> An American Hispanist, commenting on Spain's glorification of 1492 / 1992, pointed out that in Spain in 1492, the big events were the conquest of Granada and secondarily the expulsion of all of Spain's Jews (see Alhambra decree). In 1992, it would have been politically problematic for Spain to commemorate either of these . </P>

Do you get holiday pay for colombus day