As part of the TAG English 10 curriculum (and apparently now the Accelerated class as well) we are required to write a paper and enter into a contest. A couple weeks ago (you know, before the mono, pteh!) Mrs. Lansman had us read several papers from past years. Each year there's a different topic, to which you pick an example and portray why exactly it's the best example. . . basically. Three years ago John Kohorst wrote about genocide. And who would happen to read his paper but none other than Danielley. He brought up different examples of genocide, or a systematic killing of a racial or cultural group, in history. Obviously he brought up the Holocaust, the situation in Rwanda, and something else that sort of caught me off guard... the killings of Native Americans in the United States.Obviously if you've been paying attention during history AT ALL, you'll realize that if you're a white American you've basically got the most shameful past EVER. We've enslaved the African Americans, treated them like dirt after they were freed, took anything we wanted from the Native Americans just because we could, and then attempted to completely kill off a race. In fact, we almost succeeded. 99% of the Native American population had been killed by the time we were 'satisfied' and those who still lived were forced to live on reservations. Does anyone recall the Trail of Tears? Making a whole people march ACROSS THE COUNTRY?! SHOOTING THOSE WHO FELL BEHIND?! BARELY LETTING THOSE WHO LIVED SURVIVE?!I just find it ironic that we were so willing to slap the tag of genocide on the country of Pakistan for their killings of the Albanians... and yet we can't own up to something we did for over one hundred years? And not even just the United States contributed to the oppression of the American Indians. Since the discovery of their race they have been treated poorly. Christopher Columbus brought them back to Spain as slaves. Hernando Cortes slaughtered an entire city for GOLD. A history of bloodshed and massacres... all for what? Why? Just because they were different and misunderstood.Even today in the reservations, Native Americans are suffering. Most high school students there have problems with alcohol and drugs. They suffer identity crises, because let's face it, in the past they have recognized them as human beings about as often as it's been believed rocks can be brain surgeons.Basically all I'm trying to say is that next time we want to accuse a country of the mass murder of an entire race, maybe we should look at ourselves.
Comments
Very interesting blog entry! I agree that what Europeans and later the US did to NA is one of the most underhyped destruction of a people in world history.