Christopher Columbus Introduction

I'm sure that 9 times out of 10 I won't write regarding the introduction to a piece, and merely write about the literature itself. However, with the Columbus introduction I feel compelled to comment. The story of Columbus is taught to children in grammar school. I know when I taught 1st-3rd grade I taught the Columbus story many times over. Never once did I actually take the time to do any more digging into it than what I was taught in school and what the text for the children said. Not until today did I know that Columbus had to return to Spain and clear his name, or that he was arrested again in the Islands. I'm sure that people much more intelligent and historically trained than me were quite well aware of this, but being that I never had a real interest for history (just please don't tell my History teacher father), I didn't bother to dive into anything further than "Columbus sailed with the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, he saw land, he saw some Indians (Native Americans if being politically correct), he found some gold, and he sailed back." I knew that he had gone back a few times, but had no earthly idea that it was four.
I realize that as we teach our children history, it's important to teach them things that are factual, attempt to hold their interest for a 45 minute lesson, and taught in a way that can be understood, but I wonder if we're doing any justice at all to our children by not telling them the entire story when they are old enough to handle it. Columbus Day is all well and good, but the story of Columbus goes much farther and deeper than "Yay he discovered America." The story that we teach fails to make children realize that there were people living on this land before the Europeans found it. Nor does it tell them what happens to the Indians after the Europeans started to inhabit the land. Or the devastation it caused the Indian population since the Europeans were bringing over foreign diseases. Again, perhaps something a bit too morbid and deep for young children, and maybe it was just the schooling that I received and the books that I used to teach, but to not revisit the Columbus story in more depth and detail as students get older, I feel is doing them a disservice.