Native Americans and White Europeans

When a white army battles Indians and wins it is called a great victory, but if they lose it is called a massacre and bigger armies are raised. If the Indian flees before the advance of such armies, when he tries to return he finds that white men are living where he lived. If he tries to fight off such armies, he is killed and the land is taken away. – Chiksika, older brother of Tecumseh, March, 1779.

That Native Americans were mistreated cannot be argued. Native Americans lived in North America at least from the time of Jesus Christ.

During the French & Indian War, the Native Americans sided with the French. The French, you may remember, lost the war. French traders, unlike the Americans and British, lived among the Indians, intermarried with them, and learned the Indian ways. The British and Americans treated Indians with nearly open contempt and considered them sub-human.

The British traders were less welcome than the French although their goods were generally cheaper and of better quality. Americans were apt to cheat the Indians and eager to trade whiskey which was expensive and extremely wasteful.

After much thought and an effort to do what was in their own best interests (despite any preferences) the Indians supported the British in the American Revolution. Tecumseh’s father, Pucksinwah, the great Shawnee war chief, was killed at the Battle of Point Pleasant.

I suppose it was just blind, dumb luck but the Native Americans made the wrong choice each and every time. With the French, they chose according to their preference – they simply preferred the French and were treated better by them. In the Revolutionary War, they actually weighed what was in their best interests.

In 1763, the King of England had forbidden claiming any lands beyond the crest of the Allegheny Mountains. The King was widely ignored and violators were not prosecuted and treaties not upheld. In subsequent treaties, notably Ft. Stanwix, the British parlayed with the Five Nations only. The Iroquois had fought the Hurons in a war that lasted nearly one hundred years beginning in 1500 or so. Near the end of that war, the Hurons were hidden by the Eries. When the Iroquois learned of the Eries’ subterfuge, they hunted them down man, woman, and child and wiped them from the face of the earth. The Iroquois gained a great deal of stature and fear because of this. As a result they claimed the right to deal with the British exclusively due to Right of Conquest. Later, they sold the rights to the Ohio Country for several hundred thousands pounds of silver. Unfortunately, the Shawnees had been granted ownership of the Ohio country by the Miamis and others. The Shawnees had never been defeated by the Iroquois and were subservient to no tribe. Nevertheless, the British were eager to make deals and were therefore susceptible to the Iroquois’ claims of superiority and authority.

The quote above goes on to aver that when the Indians killed a white man, another and another would come to take his place. That was the nature of the Americans’ relationship with the Indians. They came looking for land and pressed their claims without regard for the fact the Indians owned the lands. Is that wrong? Sure, on the face of it. But the numbers were overwhelming and the lust for land was too strong. There was nothing the British or American government could have done to stop them. I suspect a similar fate awaits the White Man if our southern border is opened – an unstoppable flow of the descendants of the Native Americans will come in to claim land in numbers that cannot be controlled or stopped. I submit that the inexorable westward migration of white Europeans in North America was neither wrong nor right. It was an irresistible force that could not have been stopped by any authority.

Perhaps that's just really slow karma.

I suspect a similar fate awaits the White Man if our southern border is opened – an unstoppable flow of the descendants of the Native Americans will come in to claim land in numbers that cannot be controlled or stopped.

Home to roost.

And God Damned America too, didn't he???

Aaron wrote:And God Damned America too, didn't he???

Huh?

Your statement, Home to roost was part of Rev. Wright's God Damned America sermon.

Aaron wrote:Your statement, Home to roost was part of Rev. Wright's God Damned America sermon.

I am not responsible for what Rev. Wright said, nor is he responsible for what I say.

'Home to roost' is a common, ages old English language adage.

Aaron wrote:And God Damned America too, didn't he???

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as much as said so. And so it must be true.

When God says so, I'll listen.

ziggy wrote:

Aaron wrote:And God Damned America too, didn't he???

Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as much as said so. And so it must be true.

ziggy wrote:I am not responsible for what Rev. Wright said, nor is he responsible for what I say.

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