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Question: Manifest Destiny-the American version of the Holocaust!?
Serious answers please!.
I'm not Native American, in fact, I'm part English, Spanish and Irish, but I feel that what was done in the name of Manifest Destiny is a horrific example of hypocrisy in our history!.
In my history books when I was in school, manifest destiny (if it was even mentioned) was little more than a foot note, a paragraph in one book!. I find this terrible that more people do not even know what it is!.
I'd especially like to hear from anyone of Native American ancestry!.
Was Manifest Destiny the American Holocaust!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
There in no reason to look into the distant past!. The deliberate annihilation of Native Americans continued right up to the late 1900s
Up until 1980s Native children were taken from their families and placed in boarding schools!. The government knew that more than 50% of the children died in those schools and did nothing!. Children were physically abused, sexually abused and murdered!.
Rampant sexual abuse at reservation schools continued until the end of the 1980s, in part because of pre-1990 loopholes in state and federal law mandating the reporting of allegations of child sexual abuse!. In 1987 the FBI found evidence that John Boone, a teacher at the BIA-run Hopi day school in Arizona, had sexually abused as many as 142 boys!. The principal failed to investigate a single abuse allegation!.
Soul Wound: The Legacy of Native American Schools
http://www!.amnestyusa!.org/amnestynow/sou!.!.!.
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Six members of the Sioux Nation who say they were physically and sexually abused in government-run boarding schools filed a class-action lawsuit against the United States for $25 billion on behalf of hundreds of thousands of mistreated Native Americans!.
Zephier, et al!. (Sioux Nation)!. v!. United States of America Complaint
http://www!.twofrog!.com/lawsuit!.html
http://www!.hermanlaw!.com/html/native-ame!.!.!.
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The same policy was carried out in Canada
In Canada, up until 1985, Christian churches ran around 100 boarding schools for aboriginal children!.
Like the United States,,,,,,,documents show a death rate of 50%!. Reportedly, around 50,000 aboriginal children died in these schools!.
A 2001 report by the Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada
"The report says church officials killed children by beating, poisoning, electric shock, starvation, prolonged exposure to sub-zero cold while naked, and medical experimentation, including the removal of organs and radiation exposure
http://dutroux!.blogspot!.com/2008/02/rape!.!.!.
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The United States and Canada carry out the same policies in regard to their Native populations!. Here is another example!.
Sterilization of Native American Women
No one even today knows exactly how many Native American women were sterilized during the 1970s
http://www!.ratical!.org/ratville/steriliz!.!.!.
1928: Sexual Sterilization Act is passed in Alberta, allowing any inmate of a native residential school to be sterilized upon the approval of the school Principal!.
1933: An identical Sexual Sterilization Act is passed in British Columbia!. Two major sterilization centres are established, in which thousands of native men and women are sterilized by missionary doctors until the 1980’s!.
http://canadiangenocide!.nativeweb!.org/in!.!.!.
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The "Native American Holocaust" did happen hundreds of years ago, It's been happening for a hundred years!.
Americans keep saying that Native Americans should "Just get over it" No one is alive who suffered!.
Why then was there over 95,000 claimants in the lawsuit against the Canadian government!? The lawsuit in the US is on behalf of thousands!.
There is no hundreds of years in the past for Native Americans!.
!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Manifest Destiny was an example of what one of my profs called the "chosen people" syndrome!. These situations have several things in common:
- It's always self-declared,
- Most of the world's peoples have declared themselves "special", "chosen", "predestined", or whatever at some point of history,
- And they usually do it right before they're about to do something to another people that can't be justified by other means!.
So for instance, the Canaanites didn't invite the Jews into their territory; the Israelites conquered the area because they were "chosen" to do so!. The Spanish used conversion of the natives as cover for ruling an empire and extracting its mineral gold & silver!. The Japanese felt their destiny was to dominate Asia in the 1930s and 40s!. We adopted "Manifest Destiny" because we wanted to essentially conquer the continent east to west, and that was our justification!.
Edit: dave, you got the Monroe Doctrine right, but Manifest Destiny is a different thing from the Monroe Doctrine!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
manifest destiny was covered in my history books, and pretty well i might add!.
moral issues aside, what happened to the native peoples of the americas happens every time a culture of superior technology encounters a culture of inferior technology!. no matter what the intention is, to save or to force into servitude, the technologically superior culture destroys the technologically inferior culture!. it has happened in history over and over again, almost like a law of human behavior lasting thru the centuries!.
these issues are very emotional!. they provoke strong reactions to the survivors of these kinds of mixings!. morally there are hundreds of arguments against this kind of behavior and few in favor of it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
Don't let your textbooks or your teachers fill your head with America-hating mush!. Americans did not set out to exterminate natives and Mexicans in the way that Hitler set out to exterminate Jews and Russians!. They set out to settle land and make lives for themselves and their families!. Eventually, there were many more Americans than natives or Mexicans!. By sheer numbers, the old culture of natives and Mexicans was overwhelmed by American culture and people!. That was their Manifest Destiny!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
It certainly was bad what happened to the native americans, but I think that the intent of the Monroe Doctrine was to keep Europeans from laying claim to what is now the western US!.
More than likely if the Americans hadn't done it someone else would have!. Perhaps the map would look much different, with several countries in North America, New France, New Spain etc!. and perhaps there would be The United States of The Native Americans or something to that effect!.
Holocaust, I think is a bit strong!. It's not that far off though!. Www@QuestionHome@Com
You have hit on one of the central problems of American history! All of our history has occurred in "historical times" and not a thousand years ago!. We hear about "the American Holocaust" all the time but not much about other peoples!. Two examples are when the Japanese moved from Manchuria to what they now call "Japan" wiping out the indigenous white people (the Ainu) who lived there, and when the Franks moved from Germany into Gaul and changed it to France,
Most other peoples have the same story!. Their "civilizations" were built on the remains of others!. My old Anthropology professor called this "the way of the world!." Look at the Bible! What did the Jews do to the peoples who live in "the promised land" after they arrived from Egypt!?
It is only in very modern times, and only in the Western world, that we have gotten the idea that "genocide" (or whatever you want to call it) is wrong!.Www@QuestionHome@Com
"Holocaust" as it's used in WWII, Germany, and the Jews!?
One dictionary defines it as:
"Main Entry: manifest destiny
Function: noun
Usage: often capitalized M&D
Date: 1845
: a future event accepted as inevitable <in the mid-19th century expansion to the Pacific was regarded as the Manifest Destiny of the United States>; broadly : an ostensibly benevolent or necessary policy of imperialistic expansion
The phrase was used by New York Post editor John L!. Sullivan when he wrote that the United States would spread out across the entire continent!. This was due to being given to the nation by "Providence" and "for the development of the great experiment of liberty!."
By 1845 European diseases had ravaged the Native American population!. Many areas of the continent were empty or the tribes simply were too small to control their original territory!. This doesn't match 1930s Germany that was heavily urban and industrialized!.
Following the Mexican American War, most of the Southwest changed from Spanish to American ownership!. There's no history of a policy to drive Mexicans out of the Southwest and many times the land ownership remained intact!.
The Oregon-Washington region was a site of competition between America, England and to a lesser extent Spain and Russia!. Would any of these other nations have policies that were much different!?
If this is a "Holocaust" show us the concentration camps, the extermination factories and the paper trail where killing all Native Americans, Mexicans, and Hawaiians was a policy!. The Sand Creek and Wounded Knee massacres are counted in the hundreds, not millions!.
To a great extent this was a culture clash between a stone age and iron age cultures!. One or the other would be changed forever!. In this case, the stone age culture had to change in a radical manner!.
Sure, the history of treaties, and government double dealing is extensive!. Can it be shown that it was part of a policy to exterminate the Native Americans, Mexicans and Hawaiians!? It seems at odds to placing Native Americans on a dole!.
Manifest Destiny wasn't nice!. The Holocaust was a nightmare!.Www@QuestionHome@Com