From: Ascmjk@aol.com
Date: Sat Nov 13 2004 - 19:44:24 GMT
In a message dated 11/13/2004 10:07:09 AM Central Standard Time,
markheyman@infoproconsulting.com writes:
Let's make it simple: Suppose there were only two million Indians in
North America in 1800. Let's say by 1900 there were 250,000, as a
million had chosen to "kill themselves" by assimilating, and 750,000
had been murdered because they chose not to assimilate and the
conquering power really, really wanted their land.
Let's get a fresh perspective. Slaughter of Indians after 1800 is just so
"over done" you know? I mean, it's like people think Indians lived in a virtual
Utopia before the Spaniards arrived. This holier-than-thou sleight of hand is
getting quite OUT of hand.
It's wrong to lump all the "Indians" together as if they were one undivided
race. To do so totally ignores what made each group unique, and destroys any
insight to be garnered from such distinctions.
While some tribes were undoubtedly very peaceful, others were undoubtedly
bloodthirsty killers of men, women, and children. To characterize (as some many
historians do) killer Indians as somehow "less evil" than killer Europeans, is
on par with the vilification of the Sophists which so horrified Pirsig in the
concluding chapters of ZMM.
And to suggest that Indians didn't wipe out entire cultures is wrong too.
Entire tribes were wiped out--old customs left like bones to turn to dust and be
blown away by the indifferent wind of history--long, long before the white man
began to push inexorably West.
Jon
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