Posted on 01/27/2005 10:37:51 PM PST by quidnunc
oh my.
Because of the pagan nature of ancient Mexico and South America, I have very very little pity for my ancient pagan Hispanic ancestry. I'm SOOOO VERYYY HAPPY that Catholic missionaries came and changed the Americas!
--SaltyJoe...in a white wine sauce
(uh, it's a Monty Python reference)
Can't say I wouldn't have done the same thing if I had been in their position. I recall reading how the Plains Indians used to slaughter huge numbers of buffalo, just for the hell of it. But this kind of thing scandalizes the PC crowd, who just must have their own peculiar vision of the Indian. For my part, I'd rather know the truth.
Fortunately I'm old enough to have attended school before political correctness took over - when we studied the native peoples of America, we heard all about the human sacrifices they made. It makes one think more kindly of the Conqusitadors - it was indeed the triumph of civilisation.
Regards, Ivan
Indeed. The Plains tribes, before the reintroduction of the horse to North America, hunted Bison by using fire to drive a huge herd off a cliff, then butchered the dead and dying beasts, taking only choice parts, leaving tons of dead bison to rot. I said that the horse was reintroduced to North America, and it's true. There had been large herds of wild horses some centuries before, but the Native Americans had eaten them into extinction...
the infowarrior
Example: La Virgen de Guadalupe - a depiction of the Virgin Mary as an indiginous woman.
Wow. Where did you read this stuff?
As I recall, the bit about the bison drives came from a Time/Life book on the Native Americans, which I read in the 1970's (would be about 1978-1979). The part about the horses I read somewhere on the internet, about three years ago, although I cannot for the life of me recall which site I read that particular gem on...
the infowarrior
exactly.
Where's all the good conquistadores, when we need them in the middle east?
Voting Socialist and undoing Aznar's good work.
Aznar had brought Spain back as a power to be reckoned with. His successors are rapidly making Spain into a puppet of France and Germany.
Regards, Ivan
There are a couple of very good books about what really happened during that severe Winter. Read them when I was in high school. I hiked into that area when I was in my twenties and could not believe the isolation and deathly quiet near the site. This years severe Winter storms may have caused the Park Rangers in Donner Park to reflect back on what happened in 1846.
Over the next four months, the eighty-one remaining men, women, and children huddled together in two abandoned cabins*, make shift lean-tos, and tents. The cattle had all been killed and eaten by mid-December; one man had died of malnutrition. The people began to eat bark, twigs, and boiled hides._______In desperation, a group of nine men, five women, and a twelve year old boy packed scanty rations and on snowshoes made from oxbows and rawhide, set out to cross the pass for help. They called themselves the Forlorn Hope. Nine days later they realized they had become lost in the snow-covered mountains. Completely without food for three days and on the verge of starvation a suggestion was made to draw lots; the loser would sacrifice his life to save the others. Patrick Dolan drew the fatal slip, but no one could bring themselves to kill him. Malnutrition soon carried out what the group could not do. Two other men followed quickly. Ten members of the Forlorn Hope butchered their dead companions, then wrapped and carefully labeled the packages so no one would have to consume their relatives. The two Indians who had accompanied the group as guides refused the gruesome nourishment and vanished into the woods. (1)
* * * It took four relief parties two months to get all the survivors out. The second relief party, led by James Reed, reported that when they arrived at the camp, “half-eaten bodies” littered the ground and the survivors “surrounded by the remains of their unholy feast, looked more like demons than human beings.”
(1) Native America Plains Tribes did not eat white folks who were coming across in covered wagons. They had millions of buffalo to feast upon and other wild game to eat. Kevin Costner got the history mostly correct in "Dances with Wolves" and won an Academy Award for his efforts.
There was cannabilism among native Americans, but this info has been politically incorrect for some time.
Wahabis lack the skill to barbecue.
I'll be sure to celebrate Columbus Day with much more vigor from now on! :)
The kicker was, the losing team was killed and sacrificed!
It would definitely motivate our rich and spoiled superstars to win the Superbowl if that was their fate, eh??
LOL!
***Redford's movie Jeremiah Johnson cleaned up the reputation of the man. He was, during his day, known as Liver Eating Johnson. He hunted Crow Indians, killed them, and ate their livers. **
I read that years later Johnson admitted that he only passed the liver in front of his face to make it look like he took a bite out of it, but did not actually eat it.
I've read so many books on the old west I can't remember which book or magazine it was in.
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