Breaking a lance for the TRUE Americans

A group of people you probably don't belong to...



The indigenous people of North America.



Yes, I am talking 'Indians'* here! Because there is no group of people on earth that has had more experience with the greed, the neglect, the self-appointed superiority and apathy of the sort of people from among which you pick your presidents: the rich anglosaxon christian man. The wealthy descendant of the European invaders. And there is no group of people whose suffering at the hands of the aforementioned intruder has been so widely neglected. It seriously makes me furious. So here's a little reminder.



*) 'Indian' isn't a remotely correct term but because it's relatively short and generally applicable I'll use it here and there anyway. Just like I may use 'Europeans' where I mean anglosaxon Americans.



"What law have I broken? Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it wicked for me because my skin is red? Because I am a [Lakota]; because I was born where my father lived; because I would die for my people and my country?"

--Sitting Bull, 1877



The history of the Indians since the first contact with 'modern' Europeans in the 15th and 16th century is simply dreadful. Imagine people you've never met before ringing your door bell and when you open, walking straight past you and setting up a tent in your living room without asking. Imagine them eating your fridge empty and spending all your money, somehow infecting you with all kinds of illnesses you'd never heard of before, steadily spreading out to other rooms leaving you to live in the hallway. Imagine them giving themselves the power to command you to do anything, beating you up when you protest, sticking their nameplate to the door, making you sign contracts reading "this is as far as we will both go if you cooperate" and the next minute (literally) breaking it and assuming control somewhat further, finally locking you up in the shed and moving on to another house.



You, of course, stand for an(y) indigenous tribe. The house is the tribe's territory. This metaphor only describes how it started. Say, before the Brits left and The United States came to be. Don't think it became any better under American government, though:



From 1779 until around 1850 is called the Treaty period by some. Indeed, over three hundred treaties were made with the Indians, none of which was left unbroken. And yes, it was the European men who broke them, not seldomly that same week. From the start of the nineteenth century was also the time of the Removals (courtesy of president Jackson): tribes were forced to leave their own territories and were led into totally different lands (of lesser fertility and richness in raw materials of any kind) in totally different states. On foot. Unsurprisingly, many people died, especially children and the elderly. The Cherokee fittingly named the path they had traveled the 'Trail of Tears' (1838).

In Oklahoma, since the Europeans had discovered that Indian women held all property rights, white men were encouraged to marry Indian women and make sure that they're in the testament, so they would inherit the ground. Consequentially, Oklahoma had the highest intermarriage rate, as well as the highest death rate for young brides.



Further limiting the Indian ground coverage started around 1850 and wouldn't end until the end of World War I. It was this period that the concentrating of tribes into reservations started. Abraham Lincoln finally banned slavery as well as signed the death warrants for thousands of Indians, these were the last official mass hangings in the USA. Troublesome tribes were forced into submission by ruthless attacks on Indian villages of by heavily-armed soldiers, without any exception while the able-bodied men were out hunting or fishing (Marias and Washita massacres, among others). They didn't always bother to look if the village was among the ones opposing US advance into Indian lands.

Provoked by the brutal attacks on their people, some of the Indians from already conquered regions wanted to take more rigorous action (among which Sitting Bull, whom I've lent the quote above from). For instance, spreading the 'gospel' of the Ghost Dance. This was a ritual that would make the earth swallow up the white men and spit the buffalos (which had been hunted to extinction by then due to the sudden technological advances of guns and horses and white men hunting more than they needed to feed themselves) back out. White people who were aware of the Ghost Dance's meaning informed the cavalry. The tension between armed forces and Indians climaxed at the infamous massacre at Wounded Knee, where the Indians had fortified themselves. The cavalry came to collect their weapons (which consisted of mostly knives and altogether only seven or so rifles). During this search somehow a shot was fired on accident, and hell broke loose. 380 unarmed Indian men, women and children found their deaths. All of the few casualties on the side of the cavalry were victims of friendly fire. This was (fortunately) the last armed conflict between Indians and the army.

In 1887 the US Congress seemed to be in a giving mood when they announced the Dawes Act: every Indian family was given a small plot of land which you could keep if you could improve the land quality. If not, it would be given to descendents of the Europeans. Those that could improve their land had to split up their land among their children every generation, and so after some time all they had was a tiny piece of land just big enough for one potato, and when you can't do anything with the land, and the only way to gain profit from the land was to sell it (guess to whom). This was, of course, the Congress' whole plan. From around this time also dates the law that it is forbidden for anyone to speak their native language, perform their traditional ceremonies, tell tales from their mythology, or pursue any other cultural feats that set them apart from the Americans, to help prevent them from rising against the USA with a strong sense of self-awareness.



By 1990, the indigenous population count had dropped to 154 291. We estimate this number to have been around 25 000 000 at the time of first European settlement.



In 1924, Indians were forced to take on American citizenship.

Ten years later John Coller initiated the Indian Reorganisation Act: Indians were allowed to govern their own nations! They would be treated as any other nation (government to government relationship), if only they adopted the amendements the USA has. Maybe funny to note in this context that the American Bill of Rights has actually quite literally been copied of an Indian text which even started with 'We, the people...'.

When we skip anothertwenty years we will see the birth of the Termination Act, stating that the US Congress has plenary power: ultimate power over the land. It became legal for them to simply disband any Indian nation. For instance, the Menominee nation, which was a very westernised nation, was considered 'too westernish to still call them Indians'. Their nation was cancelled, and the very succesful lumber mill sold to white Americans. The Menominee tribe quickly degraded from one of the richest to one of the poorest indigenous communities.

Around that time it was also considered a good idea to take children away from the reservations and send them to boarding schools (mistreatment and abuse galore). Here they were cut off from their families for nine years during which they were given an education equal to that of a third grader. The idea behind it was to create the ideal servant. "To save the child one must kill the indian". Of course, the States didn't actually kill Indians anymore but the Indian within the child should be killed.



From 1970 on the Termination Act has been revoked again and things have begun to look slightly better for the indigenous people. They are now free to pactise their beliefs and speak their native languages (most of which have not survived the gap). But it's not yet a perfect picture. Health care and labour rates is very low, whereas suicide rates are the highest in all America. The average life expectancy rate of Indians is 20 years less than ours. For Indians, diabetes results in death five hundred times more often than for us, and with most other diseases this is fifty to two hundred times more often. Luckily, most Indian organistions and governments (fronted by chairmen) are very much poised to keep things going the way they are now: keeping the Indian traditions alive, makig the living conditions on the reservations better, creating workspace for indians and get proper health care going.

There’s no way we could ever sufficiently make it up to the indigenous North Americans, so the least we, and I mean especially the European part of the USA and Canada (who weren’t any better!) can do is understand how vast and extensive the suffering was, and still is, that we have put them through. How creative we can be in our malignancy. How greed can turn humans into mosters.

Bush so forcefully 'liberated' the oppressed Iraqi from their dictator, but no President has ever even acknowledged the severe oppression and terrorization of the Indians throughout the centuries that has happened right under their noses, often with presidential consent, by no-one less than the US Congress. To me that's proof that it's not about the people, never about the well-being of the world population, but only for money, vengeance and this fucking feeling of superiority. It's sickening.

 

Give it a rest guy, the INDIANS didn't evolve here either. They came to this country just like us. Only difference is that they were here before us, which doesn't matter. If you can't defend yourself you get wiped out, this is nothing new and nothing european, idiot.

Some people...

 

as a mix of indian and european blood, i have no regrets for the forced blending of blood. that's just nature. i like being here. now illegal acts currently being perpetrated against the indians is an entirely different matter.

 

If you're serious about that, then you're an idiot.

The question really is now, what can be done for Native Americans? Its going to be impossible for them to live in any way like they were before we got here. Aside from just assimilating into society like they've been forced to in the past, I can't really see how anyone can survive, let alone a nation of people living in a nation no longer their own. From what I've seen (not that I'll claim to have seen a lot), a lot of Indian tribes have been pretty split, between the rich indians cashing out on casinos, and the dirt poor ones who haven't been able to cash in on casinos.

Most of this just adds to my growing hatred for this country, just add it to the big list of people who we've killed and stolen from through out the ages.

 

i must confess, i really don't feel all that bad about it. but i'm rarely sentimental.

 

why are indian atrocities never mentioned?

i hate this victim mentality that has been instilled into people.

btw, how can indians be the true americans, if America is a european name?

 

thanks for posting this, very informative and truly sad. i must admit i don't know a lot about the indigenous north americans. their tale is a lot like our own australian aborigines who suffered the same officially sanctioned genocide and mistreatment as did the indians and at the hands of the same anglo-saxon stock. the guy who posted the 'get over it' message probably doesn't realise that this 'kill or be killed' mentality is not some immutable feature of human nature that's always stained us. there was a time once, and i know the aborigines exemplified this ethos in their own system, when ppl sought balance and accommodation with other tribes and their first impulse was not to destroy that which they didn't understand or that which stood in the way of their limited material progress. it seems like we're a long way from that time but the surprising thing is time comes in cycles.

 

We got this counrty by being paranoid assholes and blowing these "savages" women and children away God Bless America.

 

having most of them die to smallpox/disease helped.

 

i thought they always were mentioned. that's all i ever heard and saw as a kid: the rotten reddens tried to kill all the good guys in white hats. but yes you do have a point: violence is not the exclsuive preserve of anglo-saxons. it's something truly multicultural.

 

i was taught nothing of indian atrocities in school, only that big bad white men killed the poor farmer indians who wanted to smoke their peace pipes and be one with the land.

 

Canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet

 

so what are u saying? b/c indian atrocities against their enemies may have been hidden any atrocities against them are therefore justified? wouldn't that be like saying that jews may have committed atrocities against germans therefore the holocaust is justified, which is of course what the nazis said.

 

i dont think there is really compelling evidence for genocide(with its super specific definition).

No, i'm not trying to justify what was done

However, if we're going to teach history, we should at least be fair and show all sides: i.e. white people killed indians..they killed whites too...indians killed white people and killed indians too.

 

Dude I know you enjoy trying to be "shocking" but this is getting pretty lame.

 

that's right but there's balance and there's balance. until today, for instance, i had no idea what the indian side of wounded knee was. i've heard the white boy's side be4 but i don't think i can ever remember hearing the indian side of it. so where's the balance there? i guess the indians feel they don't have to remind everyone of the fact they killed angloids whenever they do manage to get anyone's attention to tell their side of the story which is like two minutes every few years.

 

don't alot of indians run casinos? big bucks in gambling.

 

What was that song from Peter Pan?

Something about what the redman does?

 

Actually McGee, from what I've seen they didn't steal land from each other. Their wars were more sybolic than anything else, usually with few casualties. They didn't set out to annihilate their enemies, they felt that they as enemies needed each other as traditional enemies. Most tribes had certain property that they would live on, but between these properties was common land, where everyone was free to hunt on and use. But why am I explaining this? It doesn't seem like too many people actually care.

 

Survey says X!!!

Actually, contrary to the propaganda spread by guilt-ridden white people, Native American tribes could be and were substantially violent and greedy. There are several tribes that eradicated the existance of other tribes. There were dozens of nations that went extinct before Europeans even touched the shores.

Wars over land,resources, and wealth were very common. Pillaging, raping, stealing, infanticide were rampant.

You think the old stereotype in western movies of Comanches and Utes were unfounded and made-up as slander? Comanches were amongst some of the most feared nations.

I love how people try to romanticize native peoples,usually done to make the Europeans the ultimate evil.

Humans are humans....evil and violence transcends.