Native American genocide

Most of the time when I was in school I got good grades. I studied what they taught me, and while I sometimes thought the subject matter left a lot to be desired (history, for example, seemed to be defined as why a bunch of white men decided to have wars), I went along. I asked lots of questions, and sometimes I was satisfied with the answers, and sometimes I wasn’t, but my grades were good enough, so I didn’t really think too much about it. After I graduated from high school, though, and began reading on my own, I realized there was a lot more to history. I realized history was everything that had ever happened. Not just wars. Not just white people. Not just men. And I gradually concluded that the purpose of the K-12 school system was not to fill children’s heads with facts, but to fill their heads with propaganda and keep them off the streets till they’re 18.

In my later reading I learned that before Columbus landed on Hispaniola, the island had an estimated population of 8,000,000. Four years later, the native population was approximately half that. By 1535, for all practical purposes, the native population was extinct. They never taught us that in school. Ever since I’ve learned that, I feel a bit queasy just thinking about Columbus. I wear all black on Columbus Day now.

One of Columbus’ purposes in coming to the New World was to “bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the heathens,” a purpose I find utterly offensive as a “heathen.” The absolute arrogance of missionaries and colonists astounds me. Does it not occur to them that people are perfectly happy with their own religion and don’t want a bunch of strangers barging in telling them how to run their lives? What on Earth possesses people to march in and take over, telling the rightful inhabitants, “this land belongs to us now! You’ll do what we tell you to do! You’ll believe what we tell you to believe!”? It floors me. This has happened not only with Columbus and the rest of the Spaniards invading the New World, but with colonists destroying the lives of native peoples all over the world. How could they possibly think they have the right?

Over the next five centuries, a lot of ugly things happened in North America. Spaniards reasoned that since there were no descriptions of red people in the bible, the people living here must not be human beings, so it was therefore morally acceptable to hunt them like wild animals. By the time the British came to North America, there weren’t very many Native people left. Entire tribes had become extinct. Others had become mere remnants of their former size. But the newcomers didn’t believe in sharing. It was their expressed intention to exterminate the Indians. They set out to do so by every means imaginable -- destroying their crops, introducing disease, poisoning them, burning their villages to the ground, and of course, attacking them. When a few of them still had the audacity to exist, the forced relocations came. The Trail of Tears was just one of many. Nearly 17,000 Cherokees were forced to leave their homeland in Georgia. Many were held in prison camps awaiting their fate over the summer, and then in the fall of 1838 the march westward began. I have no doubt the timing was intentional. The journey took months. That meant they were traveling during winter when conditions were at their harshest and it was difficult to find food. An estimated 4,000 people died. Of course. That was part of the plan, wasn’t it?

President Andrew Jackson, who ordered their removal, is commemorated on our twenty dollar bill. Every time I see his face, I’m conscious of our money treating Jackson like some kind of hero. Did he do something really wonderful that I’m not aware of that could possibly compensate for sending 4,000 people to their deaths? I’m not sure what that could even be. Did he save 12,000 people from burning buildings?

Boarding schools or residential schools existed throughout the US and Canada until quite recently. The goal was assimilation, i.e., to make Native children become as much like white people as possible. Children were taken from their families at a young age, often forcibly, and taken far away, often not allowed to see their families again for years. They were forced to speak English only and often were beaten if they spoke their own language. The schools were often religious, forcing the children to practice Christianity and not allowing them to practice their own religion. The children were brainwashed into believing that their families and culture were primitive, backward and dirty. A high rate of sexual abuse existed, and not surprisingly, a high rate of suicide as well.

In other words, the primary goal of the dominant culture in the US and Canada was the actual extinction of all Native people, but if they couldn’t have that, they would settle for the extinction of their culture as a secondary goal. I really can’t fathom why. I kind of understand the first goal, though I find it absolutely reprehensible. It was simple greed for land, and an absolute unwillingness to share. Morally repugnant, but comprehensible. But I can’t even comprehend the second goal. They seemed to be saying “you can exist and take up space, but only if you become us.” I guess I find the missionary way of thinking so foreign to my own, I really can’t comprehend it. Why were they so threatened by beliefs other than their own? Why couldn’t they tolerate people with another language, another religion, different customs? What were they afraid of?