Post by deadwoodgultch on Jan 26, 2022 20:52:49 GMT
There are a number of concerns/issues that cause lack of trust between whites and Indians. They, in the past, have been leery to share with us maybe out of fear. And, may have had good reason.
First and foremost genocide, a word maybe unknown in the 1800's. Then other things.
The term genocide is defined as the deliberate killing of large groups of people, particularly those in a specific nation or ethnic group. However, this term, which put simply is mass murder, did not come into widespread use until the 1940s. This is when Raphael Lemkin, a jurist at Yale University coined it in his Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. In addition to making the term mainstream, Lemkin also stated that genocide doesn’t mean the immediate destruction or eradication of a nation or people. Instead, it is a coordinated plan of various actions that has the end goal of destroying the foundations of life for certain groups. While many people automatically think of the Holocaust when talking about genocide, there is no question that one of the first instances of this was with the Native Americans. Those who came to the “New World” had the intention of destroying – in part or in whole – this nation of people. During the time of this genocide, it wasn’t always obvious that this was the end goal of the “white man” who had landed on the shores of the Americas. This made it difficult for Native Americans to avoid being eliminated. During this time, many horrendous crimes were committed against these people, from murder to torture, and even human trading and trafficking.
Millions of indigenous peoples were murdered in an effort to depopulate the “virgin wasteland” settlers found when they first arrived in the New World. For a long time, it was thought that only a million inhabitants were present when Europeans first arrived. However, today, it is estimated that pre-contact population of Native Americans was likely nine or more million. By the latter part of the 19th century, this indigenous population was reduced from the numbers above to maybe 250,000 or so. Today, it is estimated there are two to three million people on earth who identify as being Native American.
Some of the most well-known examples of this outright slaughter and murder include the 1890 massacre of more than 300 Lakota at Wounded Knee in South Dakota and the 1864 massacre of more than 250 Arapaho and Cheyenne at Sand Creek in Colorado. When the incident occurred at Wounded Knee, the Lakota Indians were holding a religious ritual referred to as the Ghost Dance. However, since the U.S. government was frightened and unfamiliar with these practices, they sent in troops and shot down more than 300 Lakota, many of which were women and children. The bodies of those who were murdered were stripped and thrown into amass grave.
When it comes to the mental and bodily harm of the Native American people, no other action was quite as devastating as the effect of alcohol. This is something that has led to a situation where alcoholism, accidental death, homicide rates, suicide, and unemployment are still much higher than the national average for Native Americans.
The majority of studies available regarding the subject of alcoholism in the Native American communities, even ones done as late as the 1980s, don’t mention that these issues are all directly related to the policies set by the United States Government for the Native people.
One of the best examples of eradicating the Native American population is seen with the removing of Indians. Andrew Jackson signed the “Indian Removal Act” into law in 1830 after gold had been discovered in Georgia. This was home to the Cherokee nation.
After gold was discovered, the U.S. government wanted control of the land, which ultimately led to the death march, which is commonly called and known as the Trail of Tears in history books. This act decreed that the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, which included the Seminole, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Cherokee Indians, had to leave their homelands. However, they were being forcibly removed and herded to the west. This is when the western frontier became known as “Indian Territory.”
Thousands of these people were first sent to concentration like camps, and then they were marched by armed soldiers to their new homelands. This was located west of the Mississippi. While there were 17,000 Cherokee removed, only 8,000 were able to survive the horrific conditions on the path to their new home. Many died of disease and malnutrition. The Choctaw people lost 6,000 of their 40,000 population and the mortality rate for both the Seminoles and Creeks was around 50 percent. All throughout the country, similar actions took place with native populations being herded into “reservations” during this removal period. Jackson promised the Indians peace, but this only lasted for 50 years until the General Allotment Act was passed.
The General Allotment Act came into effect 50 years after the Trail of Tears, when the Indians were relocated to another part of the country. When the Indians were originally moved from their homes, the president at the time, Andrew Jackson, promised them that they would stay in a location where the white people would not bother them and that they would not have any claim to the land. He also promised the indigenous people could live in plenty and peace and that the land would remain theirs forever.
Even today, there are many Native people who struggle to try and regain ownership and control of the lands that were seized by the U.S. government under these types of policies. Many people claim that it is because of these types of acts that many Native Americans still live below the poverty line today. These are not issues that are quickly resolved for the people either, with the U.S. government still desiring to hold on to the land they deem as theirs, not the Indians.
However, when the General Allotment Act was put into effect, it destroyed what remained of the indigenous land base. Individual tribe members had been promised that the land that had been allotted to them was for their heirs without fail. However, due to inflicted conditions that are said to have brought about physical destruction to the lands, the new Act took the land from the Indians, leaving them with nowhere to go. And their lands were sold to non-natives (see ad above).
The U.S. government had a hand in virtually all aspects of Native American life. This included health care issues among the indigenous populations. This began as early as the 1800s. At this time, the War Department’s army physicians were worried about the increasing number of incidences of contagious diseases, such as smallpox and TB, among the natives who were living nearby military posts.
Eventually, what evolved out of this concern was what was referred to as the Indian Health Services, or, for short IHS. One of the main roles of this department was the involuntary sterilization of American Indian women. In fact, according to reports from this time, between the dates of 1970 and 1976, large numbers of American Indian women were sterilized. The vast majority of these women never gave their informed consent or were manipulated into giving consent. This was extracted from them with threats that they would lose their benefits if they did not undergo the operation. Often times this was done as part of a free abortion.
This is an atrocity that happened in what is considered civilized times for the white man. The operations that were used for this sterilization process were crude, and also often resulted in the women developing infections and other complications from the surgery. There are a number who even died while undergoing the procedure. The ultimate goal of the U.S. government was to minimize the population to try and control the outbreak and spread of the infectious diseases that the Europeans had brought with them to the New World.
Now we are dealing with large numbers of murdered and missing Indian women and girls.
And many wonder why these folks are hesitant to share stories and other information with us.
Much of the information above comes from Dave Anderson and Lists.
Regards,
Tom
First and foremost genocide, a word maybe unknown in the 1800's. Then other things.
The term genocide is defined as the deliberate killing of large groups of people, particularly those in a specific nation or ethnic group. However, this term, which put simply is mass murder, did not come into widespread use until the 1940s. This is when Raphael Lemkin, a jurist at Yale University coined it in his Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. In addition to making the term mainstream, Lemkin also stated that genocide doesn’t mean the immediate destruction or eradication of a nation or people. Instead, it is a coordinated plan of various actions that has the end goal of destroying the foundations of life for certain groups. While many people automatically think of the Holocaust when talking about genocide, there is no question that one of the first instances of this was with the Native Americans. Those who came to the “New World” had the intention of destroying – in part or in whole – this nation of people. During the time of this genocide, it wasn’t always obvious that this was the end goal of the “white man” who had landed on the shores of the Americas. This made it difficult for Native Americans to avoid being eliminated. During this time, many horrendous crimes were committed against these people, from murder to torture, and even human trading and trafficking.
Millions of indigenous peoples were murdered in an effort to depopulate the “virgin wasteland” settlers found when they first arrived in the New World. For a long time, it was thought that only a million inhabitants were present when Europeans first arrived. However, today, it is estimated that pre-contact population of Native Americans was likely nine or more million. By the latter part of the 19th century, this indigenous population was reduced from the numbers above to maybe 250,000 or so. Today, it is estimated there are two to three million people on earth who identify as being Native American.
Some of the most well-known examples of this outright slaughter and murder include the 1890 massacre of more than 300 Lakota at Wounded Knee in South Dakota and the 1864 massacre of more than 250 Arapaho and Cheyenne at Sand Creek in Colorado. When the incident occurred at Wounded Knee, the Lakota Indians were holding a religious ritual referred to as the Ghost Dance. However, since the U.S. government was frightened and unfamiliar with these practices, they sent in troops and shot down more than 300 Lakota, many of which were women and children. The bodies of those who were murdered were stripped and thrown into amass grave.
When it comes to the mental and bodily harm of the Native American people, no other action was quite as devastating as the effect of alcohol. This is something that has led to a situation where alcoholism, accidental death, homicide rates, suicide, and unemployment are still much higher than the national average for Native Americans.
The majority of studies available regarding the subject of alcoholism in the Native American communities, even ones done as late as the 1980s, don’t mention that these issues are all directly related to the policies set by the United States Government for the Native people.
One of the best examples of eradicating the Native American population is seen with the removing of Indians. Andrew Jackson signed the “Indian Removal Act” into law in 1830 after gold had been discovered in Georgia. This was home to the Cherokee nation.
After gold was discovered, the U.S. government wanted control of the land, which ultimately led to the death march, which is commonly called and known as the Trail of Tears in history books. This act decreed that the so-called Five Civilized Tribes, which included the Seminole, Creek, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Cherokee Indians, had to leave their homelands. However, they were being forcibly removed and herded to the west. This is when the western frontier became known as “Indian Territory.”
Thousands of these people were first sent to concentration like camps, and then they were marched by armed soldiers to their new homelands. This was located west of the Mississippi. While there were 17,000 Cherokee removed, only 8,000 were able to survive the horrific conditions on the path to their new home. Many died of disease and malnutrition. The Choctaw people lost 6,000 of their 40,000 population and the mortality rate for both the Seminoles and Creeks was around 50 percent. All throughout the country, similar actions took place with native populations being herded into “reservations” during this removal period. Jackson promised the Indians peace, but this only lasted for 50 years until the General Allotment Act was passed.
The General Allotment Act came into effect 50 years after the Trail of Tears, when the Indians were relocated to another part of the country. When the Indians were originally moved from their homes, the president at the time, Andrew Jackson, promised them that they would stay in a location where the white people would not bother them and that they would not have any claim to the land. He also promised the indigenous people could live in plenty and peace and that the land would remain theirs forever.
Even today, there are many Native people who struggle to try and regain ownership and control of the lands that were seized by the U.S. government under these types of policies. Many people claim that it is because of these types of acts that many Native Americans still live below the poverty line today. These are not issues that are quickly resolved for the people either, with the U.S. government still desiring to hold on to the land they deem as theirs, not the Indians.
However, when the General Allotment Act was put into effect, it destroyed what remained of the indigenous land base. Individual tribe members had been promised that the land that had been allotted to them was for their heirs without fail. However, due to inflicted conditions that are said to have brought about physical destruction to the lands, the new Act took the land from the Indians, leaving them with nowhere to go. And their lands were sold to non-natives (see ad above).
The U.S. government had a hand in virtually all aspects of Native American life. This included health care issues among the indigenous populations. This began as early as the 1800s. At this time, the War Department’s army physicians were worried about the increasing number of incidences of contagious diseases, such as smallpox and TB, among the natives who were living nearby military posts.
Eventually, what evolved out of this concern was what was referred to as the Indian Health Services, or, for short IHS. One of the main roles of this department was the involuntary sterilization of American Indian women. In fact, according to reports from this time, between the dates of 1970 and 1976, large numbers of American Indian women were sterilized. The vast majority of these women never gave their informed consent or were manipulated into giving consent. This was extracted from them with threats that they would lose their benefits if they did not undergo the operation. Often times this was done as part of a free abortion.
This is an atrocity that happened in what is considered civilized times for the white man. The operations that were used for this sterilization process were crude, and also often resulted in the women developing infections and other complications from the surgery. There are a number who even died while undergoing the procedure. The ultimate goal of the U.S. government was to minimize the population to try and control the outbreak and spread of the infectious diseases that the Europeans had brought with them to the New World.
Now we are dealing with large numbers of murdered and missing Indian women and girls.
And many wonder why these folks are hesitant to share stories and other information with us.
Much of the information above comes from Dave Anderson and Lists.
Regards,
Tom
