For the third year in a row, an Athens resident protested Columbus Day on the steps of the Athens Courthouse.
While some cities around the country celebrated Columbus Day with parades and floats, Stephen Rounthwaite sat on the steps of the Athens Courthouse protesting the holiday.
“A lot of people don’t know how bad Columbus actually was, even his own men more or less court martialed him because of how bad a person he was,” Rounthwaite, an Athens resident, said.
Columbus Day, a national holiday in the U.S., honors the arrival of Columbus in the New World on Oct. 12, 1942 and Franklin D. Roosevelt declared Columbus Day a national holiday in 1937.
Originally from Houston, Texas, Rounthwaite has been an Athens resident since 1993 and is a photographer with the Athens Photo Project.
“There’s still Native Americans in Ohio that were traditionally here and some people don’t even realize that,” Rounthwaite, who is part Seminole, said.
He said profiling is a problem in the United States, especially among Native Americans.
“There was a Native American woodcarver in Seattle, just sitting there carving a piece of wood with a knife and a cop shot him dead,” Rounthwaite said.
In 2010, John T. Williams, a Native American woodcarver, was shot and killed in Seattle by a police officer, in an "unjustified," shooting, according to a Seattle area television station.
Last year Seattle changed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples' Day.
“Some people go ‘oh, he discovered America,’” Rounthwaite said. “No, history has now proven the vikings were here first.”
He has been protesting Columbus Day in Athens for three years in a row,
“I want to show people that we’re (Native Americans) still here. That we’re not disappeared, we’re not gone,” Rounthwaite said.
Throughout his day on the steps, people have stopped and interacted with him, he said.
“So far (they’ve) been pretty receptive and been cool with it,” Rounthwaite said. “One year I did have some people who were pro-Columbus and what not, but beyond that I’ve gotten positive feedback this year. A lot of people I’ve had even come up to me and say thank you for doing what you’re doing.”
@megankhenry
