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If the indians came up with guns and bullets and had a medicine man that came up with a cure for smallpox instead of chanting for rain and the evil white man was tossing sticks back at em then the evil white man most likely wouldn't have made it west of the mississippipi. They lost pretty simple stuff. How many wars have been fought over land or food back in the day? Hey maybe ask the indians as they were fighting way before we got here and would have killed all the other tribes off if they had the chance.
Good posts, everyone....interesting. My wife's a 'native'....so there are a FEW left. In my opinion, what happened wasn't a concerted, orchestrated genocide...nor was it even murder, (at least, not any more than what happened in any OTHER part of the sad, violent world we live in). If you had to place ONE label on the whole 'conquest' of North America, it would have to be simply "cultural annhilation". It was basically a case of an aggressive, outward-looking, restless, rootless, technologically advanced culture simply 'steam-rolling' over a gentler, more rooted, inward-looking, more primitive one. It's the story of 'conquest' everywhere. There just weren't enough Indians, nor were they organized with each other enough, nor was their technology advanced enough, to present much of a challenge to the 'newcomers'.
The Europeans who invaded this continent had a culture long used to working in 'systems' and delegating powers. They placed a high value on the written document. They formed groups with like-minded 'strangers' in order to accomplish things bigger than the 'family' alone could do. They had a culture based on the concept of 'owning' things, and parcels of land...and formal nation-states, with recognized borders. They were largely 'rootless', and detached from their own environment....and had little sense of 'belonging' to any location...whether it was the place of their birth, or some new place. To the Europeans, land was just a commodity, to be used. To most Indian tribes, the "land" was a sacred thing...the source of their very existence as a 'people'..and they felt totally 'rooted' to their ancestral 'parcel' in a way that few Europeans (then or now) could comprehend. To an Indian, his 'land' was part of his self image...it defined who he 'was'. To a European. 'land' was something you built your fortune on...used, for a while...then sold ..or abandoned ...and moved on. Two pretty much incompatible views.
The Indians had no written culture....no real concept of private property...little "need" for material wealth...and no inkling of how..(or WHY) anyone could..(or would WANT to) "own" a piece of land. It was a totally foreign concept. Treaties were signed, (sometimes freely...sometimes under coercion) in which the parties had little or no mutual understanding of each other.
The Indians' culture was largely 'stripped' from them over the years, simply because it wasn't compatible with organized, European-style society. People who hated Indians set out to kill them...while those who LIKED Indians, and saw them as 'benighted fellow humans' sought to "change", "civilize", or reform them. When a society loses its culture in as little as one or two generations, disaster is sure to follow. Despair, rage, hopelessness, self-hate, and despondency occur when what "makes a man" suddenly becomes obsolete. A culture of warriors and nomadic hunters simply cannot be transformed into a society of sedentary 'farmers' overnight.
What happened to the Indians was tragic...yet "genocide" is an oversimplification...what really happened was the 'marginalization', obsolescence, and eventual death of a CULTURE....and most of the tragedy that occurred, did so on that basis. One culture simply shoved the other one aside...with or without and particular plan to do so. The result was the death of an entire way of life, and an entire value system.
It was tragic, and thought-provoking....but really, no more so than the rest of the violent, inhumane history of mankind.
The story of Mexico was far different than what occurred here in the North. When the Europeans invaded Mexico, they in fact were invading a densely-populated, organized 'nation' with a highly advanced 'system' already in place. Up here in the present-day US and Canada, the Indian population was FAR more spread out, much of it was FAR less advanced, and a large part of the landscape here was 90% 'empty space'. These two 'invasions' took on a radically different form..and have had radically different results, to this day.
I know that indians were victims of a 600 year long genocide. The english colonists called the indians "savages" just because we were different. The Jamestown colonists passed laws for "protection" even though the indians didnt do anything. Here are two laws they passed. Act 23: " Every dwelling house shall be pallizaded in for defence against the Indians."
Act 24: "that no man go or send abroad without a sufficient party well armed against the Indians."
Act 32:"that at the beginning of July next the inhabitants of every corporation shall fall upon their adjoining savages, as we did last year, those that shall be hurt upon services, to be cured at the public charge; in case any to be lamed to be maintained by the country according to his person and quality"
We didnt do any thing and they prepared themselves for war. If they never shot the first bullet at us the Indian Genocide would have never happened. About a week prior to the slaughter at Wounded Knee, L.Frank Baum, editor of South Dakota's Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer newspaper wrote about the extermination of all America's Indians. Quote; The nobility of the Redskin is extinquished and what few are left are a pack of whining curs who lick the hand that smites them. The whites by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians.Their glory has fled, their spirit broken, their manhood effaced, better they should die than live the miserable wretches that they are. Unquote. And that word by word is exatly what the U.S. government did, it annihilated the few remaining indians until they were on the berge of extinction. So i beleve that the native people of america were lied to, murdered and had thier land taken from them. The last thing i have to say is: Can you imagine 600 years of hell?
Yes, we were exterminated for the most part. Traders/trappers used to give out small pox infected blankets as trade for furs. It was all about the beaver hats, you know. That was just a start.
That is an ignorant thing to say. Care to back that up with some context?
Good posts, everyone....interesting. My wife's a 'native'....so there are a FEW left. In my opinion, what happened wasn't a concerted, orchestrated genocide...nor was it even murder, (at least, not any more than what happened in any OTHER part of the sad, violent world we live in). If you had to place ONE label on the whole 'conquest' of North America, it would have to be simply "cultural annhilation". It was basically a case of an aggressive, outward-looking, restless, rootless, technologically advanced culture simply 'steam-rolling' over a gentler, more rooted, inward-looking, more primitive one. It's the story of 'conquest' everywhere. There just weren't enough Indians, nor were they organized with each other enough, nor was their technology advanced enough, to present much of a challenge to the 'newcomers'.
The Europeans who invaded this continent had a culture long used to working in 'systems' and delegating powers. They placed a high value on the written document. They formed groups with like-minded 'strangers' in order to accomplish things bigger than the 'family' alone could do. They had a culture based on the concept of 'owning' things, and parcels of land...and formal nation-states, with recognized borders. They were largely 'rootless', and detached from their own environment....and had little sense of 'belonging' to any location...whether it was the place of their birth, or some new place. To the Europeans, land was just a commodity, to be used. To most Indian tribes, the "land" was a sacred thing...the source of their very existence as a 'people'..and they felt totally 'rooted' to their ancestral 'parcel' in a way that few Europeans (then or now) could comprehend. To an Indian, his 'land' was part of his self image...it defined who he 'was'. To a European. 'land' was something you built your fortune on...used, for a while...then sold ..or abandoned ...and moved on. Two pretty much incompatible views.
The Indians had no written culture....no real concept of private property...little "need" for material wealth...and no inkling of how..(or WHY) anyone could..(or would WANT to) "own" a piece of land. It was a totally foreign concept. Treaties were signed, (sometimes freely...sometimes under coercion) in which the parties had little or no mutual understanding of each other.
The Indians' culture was largely 'stripped' from them over the years, simply because it wasn't compatible with organized, European-style society. People who hated Indians set out to kill them...while those who LIKED Indians, and saw them as 'benighted fellow humans' sought to "change", "civilize", or reform them. When a society loses its culture in as little as one or two generations, disaster is sure to follow. Despair, rage, hopelessness, self-hate, and despondency occur when what "makes a man" suddenly becomes obsolete. A culture of warriors and nomadic hunters simply cannot be transformed into a society of sedentary 'farmers' overnight.
What happened to the Indians was tragic...yet "genocide" is an oversimplification...what really happened was the 'marginalization', obsolescence, and eventual death of a CULTURE....and most of the tragedy that occurred, did so on that basis. One culture simply shoved the other one aside...with or without and particular plan to do so. The result was the death of an entire way of life, and an entire value system.
It was tragic, and thought-provoking....but really, no more so than the rest of the violent, inhumane history of mankind.
The story of Mexico was far different than what occurred here in the North. When the Europeans invaded Mexico, they in fact were invading a densely-populated, organized 'nation' with a highly advanced 'system' already in place. Up here in the present-day US and Canada, the Indian population was FAR more spread out, much of it was FAR less advanced, and a large part of the landscape here was 90% 'empty space'. These two 'invasions' took on a radically different form..and have had radically different results, to this day.
Sorry, have to disagree with you.
The term "genocide" did not exist before 1944. It is a very specific term, referring to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group. Human rights, as laid out in the U.S. Bill of Rights or the 1948 United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, concern the rights of individuals.
There was a concerted effort by the U.S. government to eliminate the culture and lifestyle of the plains Indians through murder, torture, bounties kidnapping and destruction of their hunting grounds.
Their source of food, fuel and clothing were slaughtered, they were purposely exposed to disease that whites know were deadly to them and they were also addicted to alcohol in large numbers in order to render them docile and controllable.
They were moved from their ancestral lands and many times marched thousands of miles into harsh, winter environments they knew little of without benefit of proper clothing and shelter, many died from the cold weather.
They were not allowed basic human respect or dignity and as usual were classified as "inferior" to those who systematically destroyed them and their way of life.
This is the epitome of genocide, this wasn't random murder.
Yes, we were exterminated for the most part. Traders/trappers used to give out small pox infected blankets as trade for furs. It was all about the beaver hats, you know. That was just a start.
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