Replies

“It is a controversial question, since that day in 1492 meant the eventual end of many cultures in the Western Hemisphere.”

There is scarcely a historical figure in world history that involved movements of people that did not mean the end of many cultures.

The conquering tribes in the Western Hemisphere not only ended cultures, they annihilated the people with them.

Political correctness reigns.

Good point.

The liberals paint a picture of peaceful Indian tribes, who were very careful about their carbon footprints, inhabiting the Americas until the Europeans came and spoiled this land.

In reality, those tribes were often at war with each other, and were not stewards of the land which would pass muster with the Sierra Club standards.

In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.

He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.

A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.

Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.

Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.

Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.

October 12 their dream came true,
You never saw a happier crew!

“Indians! Indians!” Columbus cried;
His heart was filled with joyful pride.

But “India” the land was not;
It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.

The Arakawa natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice.

Columbus sailed on to find some gold
To bring back home, as he’d been told.

He made the trip again and again,
Trading gold to bring to Spain.

The first American? No, not quite.
But Columbus was brave, and he was bright.

Had the Indians advanced to iron metallurgy and gunpowder been more advanced in agricultural techniques to feed large populations, developed wealth creation through private property, etc, the outcome would have been different. Still violent. But different.

When unequal cultures meet. Stuff happens. Unpleasant stuff happens. Always has. Always will. Ghengis Khan conquered a lot of far less unequal cultures and unpleasant stuff happened as he remade Asia.

Interesting side note. At the height of the depression, and in 1934, Roosevelt offered the many Indian tribes money to relinquish their sovereignty as nations—a status that the Constitution created.

The tribes that did not take the bribe and relinquish sovereignty (Cherokee, Osage, Shoshones and one other) are today wealthy tribes with free people on their reservations—their reservations have businesses, nice homes and still retain their cultural differences. Most people don’t know it, but Tulsa Oklahoma is Indian reservation.

OTOH, the tribes that took the money and relinquished their sovereignty are run by the Bureau of Indian affairs, live on federal land, are assigned housing, need permission from Washington to open a business and are the most poverty stricken people in the US. (BTW, this is the reason the Keystone pipeline will probably eventually go in. It travels across non-sovereign Indian reservations. They have no say in what the feds put on their land because it isn’t their land).