Convince me to vote for Kerry

[Pax]

Originally posted by Ned


Re: History. I think you are quite wrong about when the "worst" happened. Most of the Indians lived East of the Mississippi when Europeans first arrived. In 1830, there were still Indian wars occurring on the Eastern side of the Mississippi. Abe Lincoln was in one of them.

Regardless, the account was written by a Frenchman who had nothing to defend. Also, the French (as did the Spanish) did not think the Indians as subhuman. They thought of them as people to be converted to Christianity and with whom they could intermarry. So I would suggest to you that the account is unbiased and accurate.

Yeah, Aptos High is an excellent school in music and in football. My daughter was in the band and went on to play the flute in the local orchestra and in the Carleton College orchestra as well.

Ned,
I usually like to justify my statements but you are so wrong. Not 100 % wrong. You do have some facts interlaced with your mistruths and denials.
I wish that you could step outside your box and judge things fairly.

[johncmcleod]

True, the French fur-trappers did intermarry with the Indians. However, the whites rarely paid for the land from the natives. The Quakers were the only group that were good about this. The Native Americans didn't have that much use for money, and it wouldn't be worth it to get money for moving from their land. This is because a) they wouldn't have anywhere to go, the west was occupied by other tribes, b) money wasn't really that important to them, and c) any tribalistic society becomes identified with the land they live in. To them, their land was God. It wouldn't be something they'd just walk away from.

What really happened was the US claimed all of the land, and when the natives tried to stop white settlers from coming in they were defeated and moved further west. But IMO the worst of the genocide was when the white men murdered all of the buffalo on the plains and destroyed the native way of life, then forced them onto reservations and tried to 'civilize' them through schooling.