Why the Indians (Native Americans)couldn't maintain their nation

[big black dog]

I just watched an old Hollywood movie and the answer was obvious. Their defense technique was just to ride around in circles while even women and children took pot shots at them picking them off.

They never had a chance. What idiots.

[Tupelo]

“I finished Centennial”

Centennial should be required reading for anyone wanting to move to Colorado. I lived there several years before the book came out and never knew why the natives there acted as they did until I read it.
Fiction but it splanes a lot.

[warchild9]

The red coats (and every other variety of bright uniforms) served as communication devices. All immediate control of battlefield formations was visual, and the colors allowed distant commanders knowledge of unit movements and integrity.

[Redcloak]

Bad dog. No biscuit.

[Tallguy]

What? 125 years to completly subdue a people with stoneage technology.

For 'stoneage technology' Native Americans were pretty good at adopting advanced weaponry & even some tactics for their best employment.

The tribes of the interior probably could have held out indefinitely were it not for the railroads/telegraph and the strategic mobility that this lent to the European/Americans.

Plus when 1 side is willing to wipe-out your food stocks & hunt you in your winter encampments, it's pretty much 'Game Over' no matter how much you might outmaneuver your opponent.

[fullchroma]

They were doomed by their primitive culture. They hadn’t yet “discovered” the wheel and they had no written language for starters.

[BIGLOOK]

There is a lesson here. United we stand, divided we fall.

Within the tribal social structure the Chief of the tribe was the Peace Chief. War parties were organized under a War Chief, chosen by a group of young braves that had some grievance against a neighboring tribe or the settlers which could be anything from infringing on the tribe's territory, revenge or just plain old plunder. The rare cases of tribal unity against a common enemy were the Iroquois vs the Huron (and the French) and the Sioux tribes vs the 7th Cavalry.

The Iroquois went to war to establish a monopoly in trade in the NE and Canada, their ally and trading partner was the British and the British colonists. The Sioux went to war to stop the advance of the settlers who were protected by the US Army. Their reasoning was simple....deliver a crushing blow to the US Army and the settlers would retreat. (The best laid schemes.....)

Only one tribe invested in full time military incorporated into the tribe after the the repercussions from the massacre at the Little Big Horn. They were the Cheyenne.

[alexander_busek]

The red coats (and every other variety of bright uniforms) served as communication devices. All immediate control of battlefield formations was visual, and the colors allowed distant commanders knowledge of unit movements and integrity.

And the best part was that the enemy commanders weren't likewise able to exploit that visual information, because... uh, um.

Forget it!

Regards,

[shield]

They also ate each other. Truly........

[Boogieman]

I think you hit the nail on the head. The Indian tribes fought valiantly, and they had advantages of knowing the terrain, and being masterful guerilla fighters. Not to mention the pretty effective terror techniques that some tribes employed, which, although distasteful, certainly had the desired effect.

However, they faced an enemy the likes of which they had never encountered, and I think their culture didn’t have the time to react and adapt to it. They did adapt western technology and knowledge when it was useful to them, but without a real overhaul, their society was too decentralized to make an effective resistance.

Throughout history, the only time I can think of primarily nomadic cultures defeating agrarian-urban cultures was when the nomads had a clear technological, numerical, or strategic advantage; otherwise it was only a temporary opportunistic victory when the settled civillizations had been weakened due to things like prior wars, internal upheavals, famines, etc.

[AuntB]

“They were doomed by their primitive culture. “

Wouldn’t it be nice if such problems could be boiled down to such a simple explanation?

How about those Indians who became more prosperous and better educated than their white neighbors?

What doomed the Indian is what doomed any culture. A more powerful culture bent on having what they want at any cost.
History does repeat itself. When the sovereign US citizen ceases to exist, I’m sure the Muslim/whatever culture takes over will say we were doomed by our ‘primitive culture’ as well.

[warchild9]

Actually, the information was available to everyone on high enough ground to see it. Those who interpreted the changing conditions most quickly won the battle.

Observe Bonaparte at Austerlitz. His ability to trace the Allied forces’ movements through the fog, while the fog concealed those of his own, gave him a victory which is still being studied today. And it was mostly because of colorful uniforms.

[advance_copy]

Barak Obama is just about the worst President this country has ever had.

[Krankor]

Well, you got it half right. Basically, Indians would first wait until there was a bunch of white people in a big group-sitting around a campfire or riding along a trail or something. Then they would shoot one of them (that was some kind Indian Marquis of Queensbury rule) with an arrow and immediately start hollering and yelling and stuff. Then all the white guys would go, "Oh, sh!t Indians!" Then they would duck behind some logs or horses. A favorite spot was underneath a wagon, shooting through a wheel. If you could hold out until nighttime, you were pretty safe because Indians were either afraid of the dark or else they couldn't go to a place known as The Happy Hunting Ground if they were killed after, say, 9:30 PM. (give or take a few hours depending on time zone). Anyway, your best bet was to shoot the chief because then they got all disorganized and stuff and kinda slipped away- I guess until they elected a new chief or something.

[Verginius Rufus]

The poor Indians. They haven't won a World Series since 1948, and now they're being dumped on again.

The Far Side had many great cartoons playing on the Hollywood images of Indians. One has them firing burning arrows at the Conestoga wagons to set them on fire, and one of the defenders asking another, "Can they do that?"

[big black dog]

Is it necessary for me to post a thread like this under humor before everyone figures out I’m just being “weekend silly”?

[NavyCanDo]

I would add also that the Indians were a Stone Age culture. They hadn’t learned how to use metals, a skill used in parts of Europe and Asia more than five thousand years earlier. Here you have people who are making tools out of stone, who haven’t figured out the wheel, and who had no written language, and their facing people who are building railroads, cities, fortresses, and using repeating rifles. They were a warrior culture also, and would win battles, but the outcome could of only gone one way over time. Even without the devastating defeats for them they would of still ended up swallowed by a more advance and powerful culture.

[dsutah]

I read/heard somewhere that Geo. Washington, when he was still fighting along the colonial frontier, would have his militia forces dress in buckskin! It was said to be much more comfortable than the uniforms they wore. It was also for better camouflage!Have you, or anyone else ever heard/read about that? It would make sense, especially in light of camouflage for modern wars.

[BIGLOOK]

Well said.

I've been scolded for calling them Indians or Injuns by a Menominee in Michigan and a Paiute in Nevada, so I've abandoned the terms favoring the tribal names they use to identify themselves. They do retain their dignity.

Some of them have adapted well, a lot still live on the Res.

The historical failure of government intervention in the affairs of men and women of differing cultures only produced a 'Cargo Cult' and resentment, initially in our own country with the Injuns.

It continues to this day with the Res in the inner cities as well.

[nufsed]

I would add Tecumseh

[nufsed]

My great-grandfather wore buckskin until someone mistook him for a deer.

BTW a dollar was called a buck because in the late 1700s that what a dead buck sold for. No extra charge.