I get that Chris wasn't a bundle of enlightenment when it came to his treatment of natives but he's a huge part of our history.
Actually, he isn't a huge part of our history. Up until a successful marketing campaign about 100 years ago he was pretty much a footnote as far as North America was concerned.
Now he wasn't the first European to find these shores
Makattak correctly notes - he never set foot on these shores at all.
The only reason Columbus has a national holiday and all the statues is that Italian Catholics felt they needed a hero to make them look better. He really had absolutely jack to do with this country.