🌎 Rethinking “Discovery”: Truth, Trauma, and the Path Toward Healing

By Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler

Every October, the United States pauses to commemorate a story it has told for generations: the “discovery” of the New World by Christopher Columbus. But to the millions of Indigenous people who already lived upon these lands, that word—discovery—is not a triumph; it is a wound.

Today, more cities, schools, and communities are replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day, not to erase history, but to correct it—to tell it truthfully, compassionately, and completely.

⚓ What Columbus Actually Wrote

Columbus’s own letters and journals reveal how he viewed the lands and peoples he encountered. His words expose a pattern of dehumanization that would echo through centuries of colonization.

“I discovered many islands inhabited by numerous people. I took possession of all of them … no one making any resistance.”— Letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, 1493

He described the Taíno as “destitute of arms … timid and full of terror … guileless and honest,” and speculated that they “might become Christians and inclined to love our King and Queen.”

This language turns sovereign nations into subjects, and human beings into opportunities for conversion and conquest.

In his Journal of the First Voyage, Columbus noted:

“They are very well made … They neither carry nor know anything of arms, for I showed them swords, and they took them by the blade and cut themselves through ignorance.”

He saw innocence not as a quality to protect but as proof of inferiority—an invitation to dominate.

By his third voyage he wrote:

“Your Highnesses have an Other World here, by which our holy faith can be so greatly advanced and from which such great wealth can be drawn.”— October 18, 1498

The goal was clear: conversion and extraction. Even in The Book of Privileges, Columbus insisted these lands were “unknown to all the world”—as if a world without European witness did not exist.

Later leaders inherited that mindset.

George Washington ordered “the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible.”Governor William Henry Harrison defended Indian removal, calling tribes obstacles to “progress.”

Against this violence stood prophetic Indigenous voices, such as Tecumseh, who told Harrison in 1810:

“The white people have no right to take the land from the Indians, because they had it first … Any sale not made by all is not valid.”

His words remind us that the original nations of this continent held prior, collective rights—rights still contested today.

🩸 The Long Aftermath: Genocide and Erasure

Columbus’s landfall began centuries of devastation:

Disease and Demographic Collapse. European illnesses—smallpox, measles, influenza—decimated entire civilizations, killing up to 90 percent of some populations.

Forced Removal and Displacement. The 1830 Indian Removal Act drove tribes from ancestral homelands; the Trail of Tears became a national scar.

Broken Treaties. Promises were signed, then shredded. Tribes were confined to marginal lands while governments seized resources.

Cultural Genocide. Boarding schools forbade Native languages, cut children’s hair, and outlawed ceremonies. Families were broken to “save” their souls.

Violence and Massacres. From Sand Creek to Wounded Knee, entire villages were annihilated under flags claiming civilization.

Poverty and Marginalization. Stripped of economic systems and access to sacred places, many nations faced generations of poverty, disease, and despair.

Ongoing Sovereignty Struggles. Today, Indigenous nations still fight for recognition, land, water, and self-determination.

This is not ancient history; it is the living foundation of present-day inequality and trauma.

🌿 What We Can Learn from Indigenous Wisdom

Before colonization, these lands thrived under sophisticated systems of governance and spirituality:

• The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy modeled participatory democracy and empowered women leaders—principles that influenced the U.S. Constitution.

• Many tribes practiced environmental stewardship rooted in reciprocity: taking only what was needed, thanking the Earth, and planning for the Seventh Generation ahead.

• Healing was communal. Story, ceremony, and nature were medicine.

Their wisdom endures, offering guidance for a planet in ecological crisis and spiritual imbalance.

🔥 Truth, Responsibility, and Repair

To heal, we must first look unflinchingly at what was broken.Reparations are not only financial—they are spiritual acts of restoration:returning land where possible, protecting sacred sites, supporting Indigenous-led education, honoring treaties, and amplifying Native voices in policy decisions.

When we commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we choose honesty over mythology, repair over denial, and community over conquest.

🕊️ A Prayer of Remembrance, Healing, and Bridge-Building

Great Spirit, Creator of All Nations,We pause in this sacred moment to remember those whose names are lost to history—mothers, fathers, elders, children—who walked these lands long before any ships crossed the sea. We remember the cruelty they endured: the sickness that came from strangers, the force that pried them from their homes, the broken promises, the banished languages, the silenced ceremonies. We hold in our hearts the grief of those who perished, the sorrow of those who survived, and the burden carried by their descendants. May our remembrance turn to responsibility. May our regret be kindled into repair. Let us vow:• To learn honestly, beyond myth and erasure, the truth of our shared past.• To stand in solidarity with Indigenous nations, honoring their sovereignty, rights, and lifeways.• To foster healing across bloodlines—that descendants of colonizers and the colonized may walk forward together in humility, respect, and care for the Earth.• To be stewards of creation, not conquerors—to listen to all voices: human, plant, animal, stone, stream. May the spirits of the ancestors bless and guard us. May the land heal, the rivers sing, the children grow strong in heritage and hope. May we walk gently, speak truthfully, live justly, and love unconditionally. Aho. Amen.

🌈 Walking Forward Together

Healing is possible only when truth is spoken. The story of Columbus and the story of America are not separate—they are the same story, told from different sides of the fire.

To move forward, we must build bridges—between races, faiths, genders, and generations. The future of this land depends on remembering what the First Peoples taught: that life is a circle, not a ladder; that balance, not conquest, sustains the world.

When we replace pride with humility and domination with partnership, we begin to rediscover what was sacred all along—the Earth beneath our feet, and the humanity we share.

🪶 1. The Lakota Prayer of Unity and Respect

“Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ” — “All My Relations”(Lakota Sioux)

“We are all related.All things of the universe are our relations —the Earth, the Sky, the Waters,the two-legged, the four-legged,the winged, and the rooted.We share one breath, one circle, one heart.”

“Mitákuye Oyás’iŋ — We Are All Related 🌎In honor of Indigenous Peoples’ Day 2025May we walk gently with all our relations.”

(This is perhaps the most famous Indigenous spiritual phrase in North America — used in prayer, ceremony, and daily life among the Lakota and many others.)

🌄 2. The Navajo Blessing (Diné)

“Walk in Beauty” — Hózhó náhásdlíí’

“In beauty I walk.With beauty before me, may I walk.With beauty behind me, may I walk.With beauty above me, may I walk.With beauty all around me, may I walk.It is finished in beauty.”

“May we walk in beauty — in peace with the Earth,and in harmony with one another.🌿 Hózhó náhásdlíí’ – Diné (Navajo) Blessing”

(This prayer is one of the most beloved and poetic Indigenous blessings — expressing harmony, gratitude, and balance.)

🌾 3. The Cherokee Prayer for Healing

(Cherokee Nation)

“May the warm winds of heaven blow softly upon your house.May the Great Spirit bless all who enter there.May your moccasins make happy tracks in many snows,and may the rainbow always touch your shoulder.”

“May the rainbow always touch your shoulder 🌈— Cherokee Prayer of Blessing and Peace”

(Beautiful for use by you personally, given your Cherokee heritage — uplifting, poetic, and universal.)

🌅 4. The Great Spirit Prayer (Plains Tribes, attributed to Chief Yellow Lark, Lakota)

“Oh Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the windsand whose breath gives life to all the world,Hear me. I am small and weak.I need your strength and wisdom.Make me wise, so that I may understandthe things you have taught my people.Let me learn the lessons you have hiddenin every leaf and rock.”

“Great Spirit, make me wise —that I may walk in beauty and learnthe lessons You have written in the stones and stars.”

(This is one of the most quoted Indigenous prayers worldwide — dignified, reverent, and deeply spiritual.)

About the Author

Rev. Paula Josephine Sadler is a spiritual leader, author of The Nature of Miracles, and founder of Universal Rainbow Faith Church. She is of Cherokee and Choctaw heritage and has dedicated her life to healing, recovery, and community renewal. Her ministries and organizations—including A Harmony Nail Spa, DreamMakers Enterprises, and the Historic Commercial Center District—are rooted in compassion, truth, and the belief that love is the most powerful force of change.