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Ignoring evil perpetuated by those who worship evil is far more dangerous than identifying the evil amongst those who have a past propensity to turn away from evil.

IMHO, those who elevate a handful of native Americans to claims over land by many orders of magnitude greater than their possible direct interest, while belittling others to thousands of people per acre without controlling interest, manifest their own personal arrogance and lack of respect for justice or righteousness.

I think the Cheyenne and Arapaho had a manifest, very real and direct interest in keeping their lands, lands they had been living on for a long, long time before we “whites” got here. Saying that their interests because they were ultimately out numbered and out gunned is an interesting point of view.

Is war pretty? No. Did the Cheyenne and Arapaho and other tribes always play nice? No. Did some raid white settlements and kill women and children? Yes. Did the US Calvery sometimes do the same? Yes. Was this sometimes “tit for tat” with neither side being better or worse than the other? Yes. Have armies done this ever since the beginning of history? Yes. Look at the wars in Europe during the middle ages when one “Christian” army slaughtered other “Christians” including Christian women and children. Did our government also make treaties with tribes and then flagrantly break those same treaties? Yes. Where the Cheyenne and Arapaho and other tribes fighting for their land and for their survival? Yes. Where they evil for doing so? No.

The Native American Indians were not and are not one single homogenous people. Some tribes were peaceful and cooperated with and assimilated into the white culture. But some were not so willing to step aside. Under the policy of Manifest Destiny, we felt we were justified in taking what we believed was ours to take. And maybe we were. Interestingly though the Indians didn’t buy into that line of thinking. Go figure.

Saying that evil done against people who have different beliefs and a different culture is not as evil as their right to exist is ridiculous. This sort of rational was employed by the Nazis and more recently by the Imans.

****I think the Cheyenne and Arapaho had a manifest, very real and direct interest in keeping their lands, lands they had been living on for a long, long time before we “whites” got here. Saying that their interests because they were ultimately out numbered and out gunned is an interesting point of view.****

Actually this is not the case. The Indians loved war. It is how they established their “position” in the tribe. Bragging rights to trophies such as scalps and scars.

When Captain Eugene Ware was sent to the western posts in 1864 he expected to find the frontier aflame with war. He found peace. No war. Indians at peace that winter living on government beef. Everyone happy.
As he took a more relaxed mode the old soldiers told him that as soon as the grass was tall enough to support an Indian pony the tribes would breakout and he would have all the war he could stand.

The old soldiers were right. He found Indians always made peace in the Fall of the year so they could live on government rations all winter then would go on the war path in late spring.

The soldiers were very joyful when Chivington thrashed the Cheyenne and Arapaho at Sand Creek, then turned against him when they found HE DID NOT KILL AS MANY INDIANS AS HE CLAIMED.