Indigenous Peoples’ Day, Columbus Day, and the Holy Grail of a Human Race Day

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PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

Today is Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the United States. It recognizes the people who are currently recognized as the first settlers in our country. It is sometimes also called First Peoples’ Day or Native American Day. Historically, they were not one people, but many, many tribes who sometimes also fought each other.

It is an official holiday in some cities and states, a counter to the celebration of Columbus Day, which celebrated the arrival of Christopher Columbus and his ship. Following the arrival of Columbus and others form Europe, the Indigenous here were fought, conquered, killed, and often displaced onto reservations. The long-term results of that are a general people of over 500 tribes that are still subject to discrimination, with high rates of mental and substance use disorders, but with a culture that emphasizes care of the earth.

Given that all humans are now thought to have migrated from progenitors in South Africa, there have been Indigenous most everywhere; however, later peoples fought and conquered the Indigenous. In 2003, the United Nations declared August 9th as International Day of the World’s Indigenous People.

In the Middle East, there are various peoples thought to be Indigenous: Arabs, Jews, Druze, and Persians, among them. Israelis and Palestinians have both claimed to be the Indigenous of common land. Often some sort of original divine religious rights to such land are claimed.

Land means having resources and a place to settle down and potentially thrive. However, resources are not unlimited, including fresh water, and climate instability now has repercussions all often the world. There are now also powerful ways to kill each other that endanger everybody, especially nuclear risks.

In a psychological way, this migration and fight for lands from an original common source may be like family conflict writ large. In the story of the Jewish people, that can be traced to the forced separation of 2 stepbrothers, Ishmael and Isaac, with the assumption that the Arab and Jewish peoples eventually came from each, respectively.

In prior writings, I have suggested a unifying identification of such diverse people globally. That could be the designation of “earthling.” My recent video described the recent celebration of the beginning of the world—that is, humans, in the traditional meaning of the Jewish holiday of the new year of Rosh Hashanah. However, that is not celebrated currently among people other than Jews.

There may be one, but I do not know of any day that is a celebration of all human beings. The closest I have found is a Human Rights Day on December 10th, as well as a current attempt to establish a Human Race Day that consists of global walks and runs to reduce global poverty. Pharrell Williams has designed Human Race shoes and clothes. In fact, he previously wrote and sang the very popular mental health song, “Happy.”

If this history is generally so, is it possible to establish a day that will celebrate all “earthlings”? Resolving conflict without discrimination of one side requires recognition of our common needs and human characteristics, and overcomes our human nature tendency to fear and scapegoat the other with mutual forgiveness. Otherwise, the costs are high rates of intergenerational and current traumatic disorders, among other mental health challenges.

There is a World Psychiatric Association (WPA) of over a hundred psychiatric societies, with the mission of ensuring the ethical treatment of people all over the world with mental disorders. However, the WPA does not seem to include mental health caregivers of the Indigenous peoples, often called shamans. Perhaps it is the WPA that might have the best chance to conceptually and actively bring together the Indigenous and the imperialists, the original settlers of the land and their conquerors, conquerors who then often fought each other in local and world wars.

In its most general definition beyond its specific reference to a religious cup sought by knights in the Middles Ages, the holy grail refers to something desired, but very hard to get or obtain. For humanity and psychiatry, the holy grail seems to be a more unified and mentally healthy human race. Perhaps, paradoxically, the coexistence and celebration of both Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Columbus Day is actually a start in the right direction if we do not insist on either one dominating.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.