February 3, 2017
An update to the original post. National Review January 23, 2017, “Indian Country” written by Peter Cozzens, a book review by Travis Kavulla.
Worth a read. Some excerpts. “They came on horses and with guns; a martial culture overrunning a more peaceful one unprepared to meet the fight.” The Lakota Souix defeat the Crow, Kiowa Indians. Cozzens details the plains Indians were not the peaceful, rooted natives we seem to get a picture of today. Not that they weren’t treated badly, but the facts are none of are sinless when it comes to how we treat our fellow man.
Some native Americans were wonderful, compassionate folks, Cozzens mentions the Nez Perce, there were others. But, “..mutilation and torture were often a central feature of Indian warfare.”
Let’s look at the facts and try to be honest.
October 15, 2016
Driving through the four corners area my wife and spent a good deal of time on native American land. During tours of places like Sedona we heard current descendants talk of revering the land, treating everyone with respect, etc. All good.
Then at the hotel I read about Yale, a recent football game with Dartmouth; a historical recollection of the written programs from the early days when their team were called the “Indians.” Horror of all horrors, apologies abound, the AD is thrown into the stocks and the PC police allow students to throw eggs at “It.” (Not Really).
Three years ago we drove out west along the Lewis and Clark trail, visiting many of the prominent sites and read a lot about Sacajawea. At 12 she was taken, along with her sister, as spoils of war. She was then sold to a French trader who took her as his second wife.She went with the expedition when the trader was hired as a guide and translator. Without her the expedition may never have made it according to many historians. She had her newborn son with her the whole time. Her sister had escaped in the interim and they were reunited when the group made it to the headwaters of the Missouri river near Salmon, Idaho. Upon returning William Clark asked to adopt her son, and was granted the wish.
Most native American tribes practiced this kind of slavery. Most societies practiced this kind of slavery around the world. Our collective consciousness’ began to catch up to us and through faith based people like William Wilberforce the practice of slave trading, and eventually slavery began to end, mostly. It still exists of course in certain parts of the world practiced by certain religious sects and evil people for the sex trade.
One of the first things totalitarian leaders try to do is erase a history they do not like. The Taliban. Hitler. Mao. All of us have parts of our history we are not proud of, in our own lives and in the lives of our ancestors. Owning up to it, never trying to erase it is what keeps it from happening again. “Never Forget.”
Should we therefore not talk about uncomfortable things, which every society has in their past, or present. That is what the totalitarians of today wish to do. Why, so they can control the future to be as they want it to be without the input of the rest of us. After all, Fascism started out as a “Progressive” movement, lauded by the progressives in our country in the early 20th century. Hitler praised Margaret Sanger and the eugenicists, he thought they had a good idea going.
Learning from mistakes is the foundation of permanent improvement in most everything we do.