This past weekend, San Pedro hosted Native tribes across North America at the nineteenth Many Winters Gathering of Elders. Launched in 1992, the initial purpose of the four-day event was to overturn the Columbus narrative and combat the 500-year celebration of the Spanish explorer’s so-called “discovery” of the Americas, despite First Nations having prehistoric roots on the continent.
“Here in San Pedro [in 1992], they were going to build replicas of La Niña, La Pinta, and La Santa María, the ships Columbus took on his first expedition across the Atlantic, “ begins George Funmaker, part of the gathering’s organizing committee and a Ho-Chunk/Dakota nations member. “Community members like my father and Tony Portillo (Chicano) asked, ‘How do we counter that false narrative?’ Instead of trying to disrupt, the plan was to hold a gathering to show the country that Native people are still here; that Columbus didn't discover anything … That we were thriving before 1492, and to provide a gateway to bridge culture, languages, mentalities, and truth.”
Taking place the weekend before ‘Columbus Day,’ October 12th was proclaimed as ‘Native American Truth Day’ by George’s father, John Funmaker, and the first MWGOE committee in 1994 to precede the colonial celebration on the 13th.