Native America Calling

Today, February 14 – The death of Captain Cook 

Eighteenth Century British explorer James Cook is revered for his drive and seamanship from Tonga and the South Pacific to the Bering Strait. He put more than 120 English place names on the map from Mount Edgecombe in Alaska to the Bay of Plenty in New Zealand. That doesn’t count the many places named after him. But his colonial exploits were often at odds with the Indigenous peoples of the places he visited, culminating in his death at the hands of Native Hawaiians on this date in 1779.  We examine his complicated legacy.

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