# The Indians on Hispaniola couldn't see Christopher Columbus' ships **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 21, 2010, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872 "2010-10-21T11:23:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/21 "2010-10-21T14:49:48Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > The idea that something can be in plain sight, yet invisible makes no sense at all. The story is utter rubbish fnord. A phenomenon I am somewhat familiar with when it concerns slamming my foot into the coffee table (that has been exactly there for 12 years) while looking around for where are my keys (A: on top of that same coffee table). It is one thing to “not see the forest for the trees”, or to say that what you thought was important was the flowery meadow in the foreground and you can’t describe what if anything was in the background; it’s another thing to say that there being an actual forest of trees there, upon looking in that direction all you saw was a bare hill. I have issues with the documentary in question over things like the quoted myth, because physical _objects_ are, well, _objectively_ observable. Whether you understand what is it you’re observing, _that_ is what’s subjective. \*What the ^%# do we know? \* Well, actually, a ^%#ing lot, thankyaverymuch; that we’re aware we’re still missing a lot ^%$#ing more does not gainsay the former. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/22 "2010-10-21T16:32:46Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > Because the Indians had “large canoes”, and a large canoe is not all that different from a small sailing ship. Exactly. The Taino of Hispaniola were seafaring and actually gave us the word “canoe” ( also barbecue and hammock ). The idea that small sailing ships would be so foreign as to be incomprehensible is ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/23 "2010-10-21T16:58:30Z")
What they didn’t “see” was what the ships represented. Death to thier culture and civilization. Had they “seen” that they would have attacked in mass instead of listening to thier lies and contacting thier diseases. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/24 "2010-10-21T19:01:24Z")
No, no, it’s true. Many Indians lived inland, so when they first encountered Europeans they couldn’t see the ships. This is clear, because footage of the event shows that the ships are out of frame. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/25 "2010-10-21T19:06:21Z")
> [@Tamerlane](#): > > Exactly. The Taino of Hispaniola were seafaring and actually gave us the word “canoe” ( also barbecue and hammock ). The idea that small sailing ships would be so foreign as to be incomprehensible is ridiculous. It’s also … and I’m a little embarrassed to bring in this PC-sounding element, but I think it fits … very Eurocentrically biased. Come on now. The Spanish were so much more advanced than the natives that the natives couldn’t even _see_ their ships? Their minds were so throughly blown they couldn’t even see large wooden boats? It’s a preposterous idea. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/26 "2010-10-21T19:07:55Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > No, no, it’s true. Many Indians lived inland, so when they first encountered Europeans they couldn’t see the ships. This is clear, because footage of the event shows that the ships are out of frame. Very true. I challenge anyone to find Indian-shot footage of the original landings. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/27 "2010-10-21T19:29:58Z")
Keep in mind that the entireity of “What the _BLEEP_ do we know” is a con job. The entire thing is agitprop for the “Ramtha Society”. The odd woman who speaks during it in a variety of accents is channeling the spirit of Ramtha, a stone age wise man who has come to our world to teach us his wisdom. ie: It’s new age garbage with almost NO validity in any single thing they have said. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/28 "2010-10-21T19:47:27Z")
So, if a huge alien space ship visted the Earth, would it be invisible to us because we’ve never seen an alien craft before? Almost every day since he was born, my 6 year old son has son has seen things he’s never seen before. Sometimes he thinks they’re scary, other times he thinks they’re really cool. But not once has any of those things been invisible to him. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/29 "2010-10-21T19:57:58Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > The odd woman who speaks during it in a variety of accents is channeling the spirit of Ramtha, a stone age wise man who has come to our world to teach us his wisdom. I bet he can’t see anything. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/30 "2010-10-21T20:30:22Z")
You can learn a lot about quantum mechanics and other sciences from that movie. Basically, whenever it says anything, about any topic whatsoever, you can rest assured that whatever the movie just said was complete and utter bollocks. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/31 "2010-10-21T20:51:26Z")
Really big and strange does not equal invisibility. or I would be invisible. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/32 "2010-10-21T21:04:08Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > So, if a huge alien space ship visted the Earth, would it be invisible to us because we’ve never seen an alien craft before? I never could understand what everyone was freaking out about in _Independence Day_. All I saw were blue skies. ---
**Author:** ![NinjaChick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/33 "2010-10-21T21:16:04Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > Keep in mind that the entireity of “What the _BLEEP_ do we know” is a con job. The entire thing is agitprop for the “Ramtha Society”. > > The odd woman who speaks during it in a variety of accents is channeling the spirit of Ramtha, a stone age wise man who has come to our world to teach us his wisdom. > > ie: It’s new age garbage with almost NO validity in any single thing they have said. It’s worse than that - Ramtha is a warrior from Lemuria (a place which is as real as Atlantis) and defended his people against marauding…Atlanteans. So not just the spirit of a man from the upper paleolithic era, but the spirit of a man from a “lost land”. The movie also speaks credibly about that nutjob who claims that you can alter the crystal structure of ice by making the water feel bad about itself before freezing it (hint: you can’t). But yeah, the natives couldn’t see the ships. It was just because Bigfoot was blocking their view. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/34 "2010-10-21T22:04:48Z")
Silliness. This can all be explained by the Arawaks’ high engram levels. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/35 "2010-10-21T22:45:55Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > I bet he can’t see anything. Well, I can’t see HIM, so there. I am curious what kind of proof there is:“Wow! These ships were here, and _we never saw them_!” Best wishes, hh ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/36 "2010-10-21T23:04:58Z")
You know what _is_ apparently invisible? Just how racist this crap is! Notice how nobody ever claims Europeans couldn’t see totem poles or tomatoes or the Incan pyramids the first time they encountered them, even though they were arguably more alien to Europeans than big boats would have been to the Hispaniola natives. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/37 "2010-10-21T23:29:36Z")
So, are there no BIG THINGS on Hispaniola? No mountains or tall trees? Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/38 "2010-10-22T00:11:17Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#): > > The movie also speaks credibly about that nutjob who claims that you can alter the crystal structure of ice by making the water feel bad about itself before freezing it (hint: you can’t). . How do you know? Have you ever tried? I have, I don’t know whether it worked, though. The ice tray became invisible. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/39 "2010-10-22T05:36:39Z")
I too, do not believe the Hispaniola Indians would be completely blind to ships on the ocean. However, a different, but related process, [selective](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attention) [attention](http://www.csun.edu/%7Evcpsy00h/students/arousal.htm)(as a psychological theory), does illustrate how, under certain circumstances, our perceptions may be profoundly confounded by the environment. For those of you unfamiliar with this [selective attention test](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJG698U2Mvo) video, give it a try. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2010, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872/40 "2010-10-22T05:40:20Z")
I highly doubt that there was anything else going on of such monumental importance at the same time that the natives of Hispaniola would have been distracted from paying attention to enormous floating islands of trees. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-indians-on-hispaniola-couldnt-see-christopher-columbus-ships/557872.md?page=3)