As the nation prepares once again to commemorate Christopher Columbus Day, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Karen Hunter is refusing to celebrate falsehoods.
Her latest clothing drop, “Already Here,” launched on The Global Majority. It drives home the message that there was no discovery of this land—the Indigenous peoples were already here.
The “Already Here” collection pays homage to the First Nations, the original wardens of this continent, whose lives and traditions are too often whitewashed and drowned in prevailing narratives. Each item, whether hoodie, sweatshirt, or t-shirt, serves as a wearable declaration of the communities that flourished long before Columbus ever set sail.
Mighty Indigenous civilizations once prospered across the Americas. The Mississippians built Cahokia, a bustling city near today’s St. Louis, by 1100. In the Northeast, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy united nations like the Mohawk and Seneca. The Maya shaped Mesoamerica for centuries, while the Aztecs founded Tenochtitlan in 1325. In the Andes, the Inca rose in the 15th century, ruling with vast roads and terraced farms—and in the Caribbean, the Taíno lived across islands like Hispaniola and Cuba.
This was life before Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean and raised his flag in 1492, and wreaked havoc on their homes.
In the U.S., several states have already distanced themselves from Columbus Day, replacing it with Indigenous Peoples’ Day as a way to honor the communities that lived in the Americas long before 1492, but once again, the facts of our history are under threat—this collection is Hunter’s earnest tribute to the Indigenous community, and a way for us all to carry the truth with us, whereever we go.
