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Photo by Bob Pennell Bubbie Phillips and many classmates at Ashland High look at Christopher Columbus with new insight after reading about him. Considering Columbus Ashland class debates legacy By BILL KETTLER ASHLAND -- Bankers and letter carriers have a holiday today to honor Christopher Columbus, but the man who "discovered" the New World earns mixed reviews from Ashland High School students. "He killed whole tribes of Indians," says Bubbie Phillips, 15. "He introduced the idea of slavery to the tribes. He really wasn't going (across the ocean) to be this brave explorer. He was going for gold. He was just greedy." Never mind, says her classmate, Tiffany Talbott; the Italian explorer deserves recognition despite his sins. "He was a pioneer," says Talbott, 15. "Our country was founded by people like him. And he worked so hard. He spent eight years talking to kings and queens to get money (for the voyage)." Phillips, Talbott and their classmates studied Columbus' voyages and discussed his role in history during their American Studies class. The sophomores read essays from a list provided by their teacher, Jane Claussen, and debated whether Columbus Day should be celebrated at all. The class split about 50-50 on the question, although more students leaned toward abandoning the formal holiday. Many were angry about the explorer's treatment of American Indians. "You can't celebrate a man who was ultimately responsible for the killing of millions of people," says Chris Newton, 15. "I admit it was a great achievement to sail across the ocean," says Max Young, 15, "but we don't need to rub it into the Indians' faces." If the holiday were abolished, many Oregonians would scarcely know the difference. Few people get a paid holiday besides federal workers and bank employees. State workers and Jackson County employees will be on the job, and schools will be in session. But marking Columbus' voyage has a long history. The first observance can be traced as far back as 1792. The Society of St. Tammany (later the infamous Tammany Hall) staged a celebration on the 300th anniversary of Columbus' arrival, according to Time Magazine's 1999 Almanac. The holiday was observed for years on Oct. 12, the day in 1492 when Columbus made a landfall on the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas. Some say Columbus Day lost its clout in 1971, when Congress moved the holiday to the second Monday in October. Three other holidays (Memorial Day, Washington's Birthday and Veterans Day) also were shifted to Mondays to give workers and their families three-day weekends. The teens didn't know about the origins of the Monday holiday, and they discovered there was a lot more they didn't know about Columbus as they did their research. "I thought the Nina and the Pinta and the Santa Maria were like these awesome ships," says Talbott. "I was surprised to find out they were just junky little boats." The Santa Maria, Columbus' biggest ship, was just 98 feet long and 27 feet wide. Some were surprised to find some of the lessons they learned in grade school had to be revised. "They told us he discovered America," says Karinna Thompson, 15, "and I thought he landed in Florida or something." (Most Oregon youngsters first hear about Columbus in school in the fifth grade.) Thompson and others who still want to honor Columbus say it's inappropriate to measure him against modern standards. "We weren't there back then," says Kari Proud, 16, "and we really can't judge that." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA