A Less Than Definitive Rant On The Topic

Today in Colorado marked the first official celebration of Indigenous Peoples day in Boulder and Denver. 

Which I suppose is all well and good for those who believe that the accident of geography surrounding one's (or one's ancestors) birth has some sort of importance in the grand scheme of things.

Except for the wee fact that, according to the scientific evidence, there is no human population indigenous to North or South America.

The word "Indigenous" refers to things that occur or originate in a specific area by natural means. 

Humans did not occur or originate naturally in either North or South America. They showed up around 15 to 17 thousand years ago, immigrants from far eastern Asia & Europe.

There is quite a bit of indisputable scientific evidence to support that statement.

Being related to people who traveled to North or South America from the continents of Asia or Europe 15,000 or so years ago via a land bridge that no longer exists does not make one "indigenous" - it simply means your ancestors got here first.

Or, as the Canadians put it, being of the First Peoples, a far, far more accurate statement.

The re-interpreting of the word "indigenous" to mean "Pre-Columbian" in North & South America by politically correct Academics does not change scientific facts - it just furthers the ignorance and fuels the divisions. 

Just like everything that people do to create some sort of special identity for themselves. 

If only the Academics would focus their energies on getting the people inhabiting this rock hurtling through space to realize that this rock is all any of us actually have, instead of attempting to make claims for people to be the real "owners" of any one chunk of it due to some sort of dumbass ancestral claim or DNA-linked heritage (note: I was going to use the word "nonsensical" instead of "dumbass", but decided "screw it, I'm going to use a more common term".)

Where your ancestors happened to be born on this very tiny speck of the Cosmos was just a random accident, as was where you were born, and who you were born to.

Celebrating it is a twisted form of vanity and ego. After all, it's not like anyone, anywhere has any say in the matter.