It’s getting that time of the year when people who wish to be perceived as modish, maybe even elegant, start taking shots at Christopher Columbus. It shows they are woke. (That’s the first time I’ve used that word incorrectly, and I feel, well, silly.)

The Indians in North America were sleeping peacefully in their hogans, wigwams, and longhouses during the early hours of October 12, 1492. They were dreaming as their ancestors had for centuries, of flashing salmon, thundering herds of bison, the thump of an arrow striking a deer, and the sound of corn rustling in the evening breeze, with no idea of the events that would happen when Europeans stepped out of a small boat into the pounding surf.

As the Indians began to stir from a sound sleep, Admiral Christopher Columbus was nearing the island of San Salvador. While looking for the old world, he had discovered a new world.