ETHNIC CLEANSING AMERICAN STYLE " LEST WE FORGET "
“Hollywood has left the impression that the great Indian wars came in the Old West during the late 1800's, a period that many think of simplistically as the "cowboy and Indian" days. But in fact that was a "mopping up" effort. By that time the Indians were nearly finished, their subjugation complete, their numbers decimated. The killing, enslavement, and land theft had begun with the arrival of the Europeans. But it may have reached its nadir when it became federal policy under President (Andrew) Jackson.”
Don't Know Much About History, Kenneth C. Davis
SOLDIERS WHO MASSACRED NATIVE AMERICANS AT WOUNDED KNEE WERE GIVEN " MEDALS OF HONOR "
IMAGES Posted by Picasa
NATIVE AMERICANS OFTEN DEPICTED AS AN EVIL BARBARIC GODLESS RACE WHO WERE A LITTLE LESS THAN HUMAN
"TRAIL OF TEARS " -" In one of the saddest episodes of our brief history, men, women, and children were taken from their land, herded into makeshift forts with minimal facilities and food, then forced to march a thousand miles(Some made part of the trip by boat in equally horrible conditions). Under the generally indifferent army commanders, human losses for the first groups of Cherokee removed were extremely high. John Ross made an urgent appeal to Scott, requesting that the general let his people lead the tribe west. General Scott agreed. Ross organized the Cherokee into smaller groups and let them move separately through the wilderness so they could forage for food. Although the parties under Ross left in early fall and arrived in Oklahoma during the brutal winter of 1838-39, he significantly reduced the loss of life among his people. About 4000 Cherokee died as a result of the removal. "
AFTERMATH OF MASSACRE AT WOUNDED KNEE 1890, December 28 -
"Just twenty-one years after Columbus’s first landing in the Caribbean, the vastly populous island that the explorer had re-named Hispaniola was effectively desolate; nearly 8,000,000 people--those Columbus chose to call Indians--had been killed by violence, disease, and despair. It took a little longer, about the span of a single human generation, but what happened on Hispaniola was the equivalent of more than fifty Hiroshimas. And Hispaniola was only the beginning.
The destruction of the Indians of the Americas was, far and away, the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. That is why, as one historian aptly has said, far from the heroic and romantic heraldry that customarily is used to symbolize the European settlement of the Americas, the emblem most congruent with reality would be a pyramid of skulls. "
Dr. David E. Stannard ;American Holocaust: The conquest of the New World
Prologue (from the book) 1992
AMERICANS SUPPORT THEIR " BRAVE SOLDIERS " EVEN WHEN THEY MURDER UNARMED CIVILIANS OR THOSE UNJUSTLY ATTACKED WHO THEN TAKE UP ARMS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES -
Posted by Picasa
"Hitler's concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed much, so he claimed, to his studies of English and United States history. He admired the camps for Boer prisoners in South Africa and for the Indians in the wild west; and often praised to his inner circle the efficiency of America's extermination - by starvation and uneven combat - of the red savages who could not be tamed by captivity." P. 202, "Adolph Hitler" by John Toland
"I would sooner be honestly damned than hypocritically immortalized"
Davy Crockett
His political career destroyed because he supported the Cherokee, he left Washington D. C. and headed west to Texas.
"The opposite of love is not hate; it's indifference.
The opposite of art is not ugliness; it's indifference.
The opposite of faith is not heresy; it's indifference.
The opposite of life is not death; it's indifference.
Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies."
Elie Wiesel.
Anyway here are some more thoughts one should be aware of when talking about the United States & its history. It is also worthwhile to look at the history of United States as representative of the “ values” of Western Civilization which these days is seen as far superiour in every way to any other Civilization or Culture .
America is not or has not represented an enlightened society which always treats people of various cultures , race , creed & religion with justice, fairness & dignity . When it was in their interest they kidnapped millions of Black Africans to make them into slaves & it either didn’t occur to them that these people were also human beings who deserved to be treated as equals or they just didn’t care. But other so called Christian nations also took part in the slave trade as they believed it was their God Given Right especially since the Old Testament defended slavery. ( Note There are Christian Reconstructionists in America & Canada who even now argue in favor of slavery )
It is interesting & disturbing how so many conservative American scholars expend a great deal of time & effort to try to show that though a great many North American Native Peoples were killed by the Invading Europeans they argue ; that the number is less than one or two million as opposed to the ten to twenty million which other historians put the number at .Some claim that in total there may have been as many as 120 million aboriginal peoples in the Americas from the Arctic Circle to Cape Horn when Columbus landed .
It is difficult to see the difference between these deniers of the extent of the massacre of Native Americans & those who deny the extent of the Jewish Holocaust . I n the end both are out to rewrite history to fit their own personal beliefs & prejudices . Both use a dubious process in which they find discrepancies in the numbers & therefore claim that the whole issue is contentious & therefore open to academic debate in the same way these same conservatives deny the science behind the theory of Global Warming or the Theory of Evolution .
What we wonder is why are they so insistent that there was no real attempt or explicit policy to drastically reduce the number of North American Natives .
Partly it is that such scholars & their followers believe that America has always been a fair & just & democratic society which believed in the Equality of all Men but this does not fit with the actual history of America. The other part of their efforts to deny the magnitude of the atrocities committed against Native American Peoples is at root racist since the “Indians “ as they depict them were a primitive unsophisticated people who were barbaric Pagans who in the end did not appreciate the Superiority of Western Civilization & of course that these Europeans were willing to share with these “ inferior peoples ” the GOOD NEWS OF CHRISTIANITY . As these apologist for Western Expansionism often seem to be saying is that ; “ How dare they refuse such a wonderful opportunity to embrace European or American values & Christianity .
It should be noted that the Bush Regime now claims that the People of Iraq are also ungrateful for the opportunities which the American Invaders of Iraq have offered them . The victims of American Aggression are now the ones who are guilty for all that has gone wrong in Iraq in the same way as Conservatives claimed about the Vietnamese People during the Vietnam War .
The British often made the same claims about the Peoples they conquered during their time of Empire for example India China & African & Carribean nations . Colonialist then & now will always come up with such rationalizations to explain or cover up their real motives which are avarice , greed & plunder to enhance their Empires Power & Wealth at the expense of those they have conquered & enslaved & slaughtered when this seemed to them necessary .
It could be argued that the only difference between these Empire Builders & Hitler was a matter of ruthless bureaucratic & technological efficiency . But the same racist & elitists views are at work in both cases .
As Robert Jensen in an article " NO THANKS TO THANKSGIVING "( AlterNet. November 23, 2006.) argues:
Instead, we should atone for the genocide that was incited -- and condoned -- by the very men we idolize as our 'heroic' founding fathers.
One indication of moral progress in the United States would be the replacement of Thanksgiving Day and its self-indulgent family feasting with a National Day of Atonement accompanied by a self-reflective collective fasting.
In fact, indigenous people have offered such a model; since 1970 they have marked the fourth Thursday of November as a Day of Mourning in a spiritual/political ceremony on Coles Hill overlooking Plymouth Rock, Massachusetts, one of the early sites of the European invasion of the Americas.
Simply put: Thanksgiving is the day when the dominant white culture (and, sadly, most of the rest of the non-white but non-indigenous population) celebrates the beginning of a genocide that was, in fact, blessed by the men we hold up as our heroic founding fathers.
The first president, George Washington, in 1783 said he preferred buying Indians' land rather than driving them off it because that was like driving "wild beasts" from the forest. He compared Indians to wolves, "both being beasts of prey, tho' they differ in shape."
Thomas Jefferson -- president #3 and author of the Declaration of Independence, which refers to Indians as the "merciless Indian Savages" -- was known to romanticize Indians and their culture, but that didn't stop him in 1807 from writing to his secretary of war that in a coming conflict with certain tribes, "[W]e shall destroy all of them."
As the genocide was winding down in the early 20th century, Theodore Roosevelt (president #26) defended the expansion of whites across the continent as an inevitable process "due solely to the power of the mighty civilized races which have not lost the fighting instinct, and which by their expansion are gradually bringing peace into the red wastes where the barbarian peoples of the world hold sway."
Roosevelt also once said, "I don't go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of ten are, and I shouldn't like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth."
How does a country deal with the fact that some of its most revered historical figures had certain moral values and political views virtually identical to Nazis? Here's how "respectable" politicians, pundits, and professors play the game: When invoking a grand and glorious aspect of our past, then history is all-important. We are told how crucial it is for people to know history, and there is much hand wringing about the younger generations' lack of knowledge about, and respect for, that history.
And as for the INFAMOUS TRAIL OF TEARS & NEAR EXTERMINATION OF THE CHEROKEE NATION
TRAIL OF TEARS
http://ngeorgia.com/history/nghisttt.html
Between 1790 and 1830 the population of Georgia increased six-fold. The western push of the settlers created a problem. Georgians continued to take Native American lands and force them into the frontier. By 1825 the Lower Creek had been completely removed from the state under provisions of the Treaty of Indian Springs. By 1827 the Creek were gone.
Cherokee had long called western Georgia home. The Cherokee Nation continued in their enchanted land until 1828. It was then that the rumored gold, for which De Soto had relentlessly searched, was discovered in the North Georgia mountains.
The Cherokees in 1828 were not nomadic savages. In fact, they had assimilated many European-style customs, including the wearing of gowns by Cherokee women. They built roads, schools and churches, had a system of representational government, and were farmers and cattle ranchers. A Cherokee alphabet, the "Talking Leaves" was perfected by Sequoyah.
.
In 1830 the Congress of the United States passed the "Indian Removal Act." Although many Americans were against the act, most notably Tennessee Congressman Davy Crockett, it passed anyway. President Jackson quickly signed the bill into law. The Cherokees attempted to fight removal legally by challenging the removal laws in the Supreme Court and by establishing an independent Cherokee Nation. At first the court seemed to rule against the Indians. In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, the Court refused to hear a case extending Georgia's laws on the Cherokee because they did not represent a sovereign nation. In 1832, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Cherokee on the same issue in Worcester v. Georgia. In this case Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign, making the removal laws invalid. The Cherokee would have to agree to removal in a treaty. The treaty then would have to be ratified by the Senate.
In 1838 the United States began the removal to Oklahoma, fulfilling a promise the government made to Georgia in 1802. Ordered to move on the Cherokee, General John Wool resigned his command in protest, delaying the action. His replacement, General Winfield Scott, arrived at New Echota on May 17, 1838 with 7000 men. Early that summer General Scott and the United States Army began the invasion of the Cherokee Nation.
And so a country formed fifty years earlier on the premise "...that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, among these the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.." brutally closed the curtain on a culture that had done no wrong.
Also check out THE AMERICAN INDIAN GENOCIDE MUSEUM WEBSITE
http://www.aigenom.com/
The American Indian Genocide Museum has a vision to defeat
prejudice and discrimination through education. In the beginning of
American History a religious leader who claimed to speak for God
gave all the lands west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands to the
King of Spain, if it wasn't already in the possession of some other
Catholic King. This decree issued by Pope Alexander Vl, effective
from Christmas Day 1492 , is on display at the General Archive of
the Indies in Seville, Spain.
The bigotry and intolerance this decree created for Native Americans
was realized when upon seeing the Tarawa Indians of the Bahamas,
Columbus wrote, "They would make fine servants. With fifty men we
could subjugate them and make them do whatever we want".
The problem with dehumanizing people in order to take their land is,
that the next step is to take their lives also. Genocide in the Americas
is not an easy subject to address- not for any American.
The purpose of this museum is to bring historical truth
to light through the means of education using actual
documentation of events that have transpired in the
near extermination, and in some cases, the total
extermination of native tribes and cultures. It will be a
memorial to the victims of ethnic cleansing. Racism,
discrimination and injustice will be addressed with the
purpose of promoting public awareness that these
elements of genocide which existed in the past,
continue to exist today. A further purpose of the
museum will be to address prejudice which is
generated toward native peoples through biased
reporting of history. The goal of influencing authors of
school textbooks with irrefutable documentation shall
be of major importance. A library and microfilm
archive will be available. The visual use of art,
sculpture and film will create a memorable learning
experience.
and here are a few more websites that may be of interest :
from :
Race, Racism and the Law Speaking Truth to Power!!
http://academic.udayton.edu/race
excerpted from: Lindsay Glauner, The Need for Accountability and Reparation: 1830-1976 the United States Government's Role in the Promotion, Implementation, and Execution of the Crime of Genocide Against Native Americans , 51 DePaul Law Review 911-961, 911-917
And from website :
RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE: ONTARIO CONSULTANTS ON RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE
PAST GENOCIDES COMMITTED AGAINST NATIVE AMERICANS
http://www.religioustolerance.org/genocide5.htm
Overview:
The population of North America prior to the first sustained European contact in 1492 CE is a matter of active debate. Various estimates of the pre-contact Native population of the continental U.S. and Canada range from 1.8 to over 12 million. 4 Over the next four centuries, their numbers were reduced to about 237,000 as Natives were almost wiped out. Author Carmen Bernand estimates that the Native population of what is now Mexico was reduced from 30 million to only 3 million over four decades. 13 Peter Montague estimates that Europeans once ruled over 100 million Natives throughout the Americas.
And see website:
understanding prejudice.org
International Human Rights: Genocide
http://www.hamline.edu/
For more links to Native American Websites see:
http://www.dreamscape.com
GHOST DANCE:
The practice of a Native American religious ritual called the Ghost Dance on the Sioux reservation led to the intervention of federal troops and the arrest of Sioux leader Sitting Bull in December 1890. Gunfire erupted and Sitting Bull was shot along with a number of his supporters. The U.S. Cavalry later killed several hundred Sioux men, women, and children who had fled to a camp along Wounded Knee Creek.
And:
GhostWolf Davidson, aka GhostWolf
www.nemasys.com/ghostwolf/index.shtml
Spiritual and Cultural Genocide...
Also check out :
Holocaust/Genocide Project
http://www.iearn.org/
Native American Genocide Still Haunts United States
By Leah Trabich
Cold Spring Harbor High School
New York, USA
And website:
UNITED NATIVE AMERICANS
http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/
And:
NATIVE AMERICAN GENOCIDE
http://www.wicocomico-indian-nation.com
And for a website which downplays The Tragedy of NATIVE AMERICANS
see History News Network which has its own Neoconservative Bias
IE pro-Bush, Anti-United Nations etc.
Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide?
By Guenter Lewy
http://hnn.us/
Anyway bye for now,
GORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment