[2banana]

The American Indian, or "Native American" were a stone age people when discovered by the Europeans. They had not domesticated animals, they had no written language and they had not even invented the wheel.

However, their lack of technology did not prevent them warring among themselves, practicing genocide (Iroquois, Mahegan), slavery (Choctaws, Chickasaws) and cannibalism (Navajo, Anasazi).

It also did not stop most native Americans tribes to side with the British during the American Revolution (rather ironic - isn't it?.

I wonder, will Indians ever pay for the massacre of "rebel" settlements during the War of Independence? Will they ever apologize for fighting against the Independence of America even as they use the freedoms and liberties in America to their own advantages?

Let's look at the history from a broader scope:

1675 - 1676 -- King Philip's War -- The Indians burned down/destroyed twelve of ninety Puritan towns and attacked forty others (including Providence). A larger percentage of the American population was killed in this war than in any other American war. Even though the Indians burned down whole villages and slaughtered the inhabitants, they lost the war.

1750's -- French-Indian War -- Most Indian Tribes sided with the French against the British. They committed atrocities and they also lost the war.

1770's -- American Revolution -- Most Indians Tribes sided with the British and fought the American Rebels. They committed atrocities and they also lost the war.

1812 -- War of 1812 -- The Indians Tribes again sided with the British. And again they committed atrocities and again they also lost the war.

[Christian Engineer Mass]

Is that from some source, or just from your general knowledge?

[Frank_2001]

The natives of N. and S. America gave the Europeans TOBACCO, and SYPHILIS. They have been “avenged”, MANY times over as a result. Anyway, the Spaniards’ descendants are now an oppressed minority called “Latinos”. Tell that to a lefty and hear him start babbling incoherently;)

[Pelham]

Let me add the Fort Mims Massacre of 30 August 1813 to your list. Ancestors of mine were killed in that attack.

[lentulusgracchus]

Your statement has some problems, and I have questions about other parts of it.

• Amerinds were not, in South America, neolithic. They had metallurgy (which brought Spanish interest) and worked in silver, gold, and copper among other metals (but not iron AFAIK).

• Amerinds did have domestic animals: dog, and in South America, camelids (llamas etc.).

• Another FReeper claims they've been documented in possession of the wheel but didn't use it as Eurasians did because they had no suitable draft animal (oxen or equids).

• I'm unaware of any practice of cannibalism among the Navajo.

• The Mayans had both writing and books. The codices are even now being decoded and translated, and the whole Popul Vuh, the Mayan Creation Myth, has been translated already for 30 years or more; I bought a copy when I was in Mexico in 1980. I believe the other civilized peoples of Mesoamerica also had writing. Great numbers of Amerind texts were destroyed on the orders of the Holy Office of the Inquisition to prevent any cultural survival of Mexican devil-worship; a few survived the flames, that had already been sent along to European gentlemen as curiosities, and they are now under curation and scholarly study in Europe. Others were saved by individual Spanish clergy as hornbooks for study of the language.

This would be a partial critique of your letter to the editor. The rest of a thorough one would address your short narrative of King Philip's War; the English were no passive sufferers of the Narragansetts' onslaught. The English did a lot to provoke that war, which many New Englanders actually wanted for a number of reasons.