[Names Ash Housewares]

agreed on all counts.

American Indians suffered terribly as this nation expanded.
I am all in support of such memorials.

But at times, it can be abused as a guilt trip against our modern nation today.

I have to point out that had this nation not expanded and became a world force, how would the Indians have been treated by things like the NAZI, Japanese or Soviet empires as they expanded un-hindered by the United States?

[Jedi Master Pikachu]

The nation could have expanded without forcefully evicting Amerindians--whose lands were recognized by the government*--from their homes. In the case of the Cherokee, who lived in what is now the southeastern United States, they lived side by side with other Americans for over a century before they were removed. The borders of the country were far to the west of their territory.

*This is the big point that trying to make: what is particularly bad is not soooo much that the government decided to ethnically cleanse these people and move them to cruddy land, but that the government broke its treaties and agreements. Legally, the government broke the law. That is the primary point why these things about Amerindians being chased off their land is so bad, although the unethical/immoral part is bad, too.