Posted on 04/10/2002 3:07:33 PM PDT by Legume
And unlike you, and the author, I'm not pulling numbers out of my behind. If there were 50 million inhabitants in the Americas before Columbus ( see Ubelaker DISEASE AND DEMOGRAPHY IN THE AMERICAS, 1992), then killing them all four times over would be quite a feat. Instead, its obviously a fantasy.
For a discussion of the lower and upper bounds, see R.J. Rummel's book Death by Government, chapter 3.
The cause of smallpox was not discovered until almost 200 years after this happened. No one could have known this at the time(unless they had a time machine)...
Think about, if you're capable...how does someone ANYONE go about infecting blankets with smallpox, without spreading it to his own community/family and getting the disease himself???
It's not possible. Because it never happened and is not a "fact", it's from a movie. I know you folks who love to claim Indian blood delight in it, but Geez...give that one up, please. It's just too stupid.
Yep, -- we now have the offical hollywood version of gollywood history, staight from an old wives tail.
And let us know when drooling becomes an Olympic event. We'll all root for ya, Stinky.
It is well documented that the U.S. dispatched the Dragoons on expeditions to inoculate Plains Indians against smallpox in the 1840s. A great debate raged from the time of independence over treatment of the Indians. It is virtually impossible for the peace faction not to have known of any genocidal policies. Had such policies existed they would have raised hell.
It was well within the capabilities of the United States government to exterminate the Indians. If this was their policy they put a democrat in charge. From the time of the Constitutional Convention to 1890 (the period of the non-colonial "Indian Wars") Rummell estimates in "Death By Government" that 3000 Indians were killed by Government troops. More died at the hands of settlers and still more died from maltreatment but combat deaths averaged 30 per year. That is hardly genocide.
Its the only one she knows.
And you're right, the government could have eliminated all the tribes from the face of the Earth if that had been their aim. But then how could Armenians like Cher, pretend to be Indians?
Regardless of any memo discussing the possiblitiy of "infected blankets", it's not possible to accomplish. It couldn't have been done then and it couldn't be done now...except in the movies. If I concentrate long enough (and don't spring a leak) I'll come up with the name of the movie where the bad guy dies wrapped in the smallpox-infected blanket he meant for the Indians. That story sure has legs almost as long as the one about the Iroquois laws being the model for our Constitution. That one really gets me goin'.
I'm part Cherokee myself. I love to hear people say "it was war (albeit one many Indians didn't want), etc.". Lets me know they have a tiny bit of humanity in them, and they feel ashamed at what all transpired. They want to believe that all Indian tribes were savage/brutal/etc. but deep down, they know a lot of tribes *tried* to live in peace with "the white man", and were screwed out of their homes, and in the case of the Cherokees and many others, forced to relocate to Oklahoma from the southeast. Nothing like chaining up women and children and forcing them to march through the winter. The white man really showed those Indians how superior they were!
But I digress. I consider myself an American foremost, and like slavery, I know nothing can be done to make up for it, so no use in beating a dead horse. Many in this country are really hoping the Indians go away so they can forget about that part of history. They are easily identifiable by their "tough s***" and "it was war" and "you lost" comments. They tend to be rednecks or have family trees that don't branch much and need to feel racially superior, or, as of lately, be liberal. Liberals don't like the Indians, they have a much larger beef with the government than the blacks/homosexuals/etc. The Indians would draw attention away from their causes, so they'd prefer they were swept under the rug as well.
You mean like history is repeating itself in the mideast right now?
History does repeat itself, constantly. It's too late for groups like the Indians, but the Jews aren't going to let it happen again. I admire that a lot.
Even short-term history repeats itself, we probably will be fighting Iraq before the year is over (and hopefully cleaning that mess up once and for all).
Shares an elaborate dissertation on this document and other aboriginal regulations up to 1992, including wartime participation and land claims.
http://www.nelson.com/nelson/school/discovery/cantext/accounts/1000rafn.htm
Dear Debbie: -- Read it, -- and weep for your ignorance.
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