From: Arlo J. Bensinger (ajb102@psu.edu)
Date: Fri Nov 12 2004 - 06:37:52 GMT
Hi Mel,
I hardly think it's my role to argue for primary sources that are available
readily for anyone to consult and come to their own conclusions. But some quick
comments...
> Pardon my butting in, but one thing to keep
> in mind regarding counts on them pesky
> injuns...In a very real way the Indians
> "killed" more Indians in the 19th/20th
> centuries than the whites did.
>
There is no doubt that white policies of cultural extermination forced a huge
division between those who felt that assimilation was necessary for survival
and those who felt that the tribe should resist to its dying breath.
It continues to be a polarizing topic, as it does with any minority that has
been systematically disenfranchised. Look at the black communities, where many
see assimilation as betraying one's culture. Whites, of course, see
assimilation (since they are not the one's doing the assimilation) as being
natural and necessary.
But with the Indians, we gave them little choice. Forced off their land, beaten
and tortured for speaking their own languages, denied the ability to perform
their religious rituals, continued denying of equal cultural status, what would
one expect?
If a Muslim army swept across America and did the same to white christians what
white christians did to Indians, would you "assimilate"? Or would you fight
assimilation to your dying breath? What would you think of your fellow white
christians who assimilated into the conquering Muslim culture? Would you disown
them? Or understand that (as the Borg say) "resistance is futile"?
Just something to think about...
In other states as well, the
> "civilized" Indians learned to farm the same
> ground
Just have to point out the HUGE myth in this. Nearly all primary sources from
the first-wave or European settlers describe the Indian populations not as
primitive nomadic foragers who did not comprehend "farming the same land", but
as established civilized people who had agriculturally tamed many regions in
the North East. Even in Guns, Germs and Steel the author mentions how "corn"-
as it existed when Europeans arrived- was the product of generations of
agricultural breeding and deliberate selection. Many tribes farmed the same
land. It's only with latter waves of settlers, who wanted the Indians' land,
that the whole nomadic savage myth was invented.
and went to the same denominational
> churches, bore the same last names... their
> children moved to new places, passed for white
> and hid their backgrounds until their grandkids
> new no different than that they were white.
>
And again, would you assimilate? Often times this is an impossible question to
comprehend when one sees one cultural as having the mandate to "civilize the
world". After all, even though you would never want to be like anyone else, why
wouldn't everyone want to be like you?
Why wouldn't those brutish "injuns" want to become part of the "civilized"
culture of the white man? Why?
> The folks who toss the numbers don't tend to
> follow that line, as it is too hard to trace.
>
At any rate, no one denies the difficulties in getting an accurate census. As
I've said, the current numbers are disputed both by whites (who see larger
indian populations getting more power) and indians (who see dilution as a
threat to their culture).
But if you honestly believe, as Platt intimated, that all these people just
coincidentally "killed themselves off", just in time for the glorious white man
to arrive and inherit an empty continent, then I guess you agree with the
recorded Pilgrim prayers at the time, that god was clearing the continent for
"his people". And those pox blankets recorded in military records, transcripts,
reports to england and letters, well, they must all be part of the "liberal
conspiracy" to make white men feel guilty about their glorious and moral
legacy... damn, and we almost had you.
Arlo
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