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Position:Home>History> How do you think the USA would look like right now......?Question: How do you think the USA would look like right now!.!.!.!.!.!.!? If we had never taken away the Native Americans' land!? Obviously, we had no right in taking away their land and killing their people!. It just makes me really depressed about how they were treated and how it would feel like to lose something that you always loved!. Any ideas on how the USA would be!?Www@QuestionHome@Com
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Benjamin Franklin wrote that it was the Iroquois Confederacy council meetings that provided the template for much of the structure of the U!.S!. government and its processes!. This is one of the reasons that the statue of Cornplanter, Iroquis Chief, is on the dome in Washington!. There is a lot of ignorance in some of the answers here about Indians and what happened!. The world has never known more valiant warriors!. But those warriors fought for honor intertribally, not for mass genocide - that was introduced by the white man!. There are many histories to bear that out!. But when Indians came into contact with people who knowingly fought with smallpox infected trade goods and blankets, and repeatedly made promises they had no intention of keeping!. The Black Hills is a good example!. Custer knew he was not supposed to be in there, and yet he took gold hunters in to stir things up!. He also massacred a village of old men, women and children at Washita while his band played, with cannon balls ripping through the tepees!. The same happened at Sand Creek at the hands of the Colorado "militia"!. Most Americans think the Sioux gave up the Black Hills, or were pushed out, but in reality they still own them, as they have never relinquished their treaty rights, nor have they ever accepted payment that the government offers virtually every year, in hopes of settling up!. Very few Americans are also aware of the fact that the Bureau of Indian Affairs, one of the most corrupt government agencies in the U!.S!. (and isn't THAT saying something among a sea of corrupt agencies) has misappropriated BILLIONS of dollars owed to the native nations of the U!.S!., and at various times have claimed they lost it, misplaced it, etc!. These dollars have been involved in a legal fight for DECADES!. They are OWNED by the native nations, but still they have to fight to get some type of record or accounting of why their moneys are not being distributed!. Recently, Federal Judges are beginning to hold the US government accountable!. So, yes, we are all responsible as American citizens, because OUR government has lied, cheated, misappropriated, and deliberately practiced genocide on these people - not just 100 years ago - but in all of our lifetimes!. Look at the energy and land issues, the toxicity issues on Navajo land, the land-grabs still going on to build infrastructure and reservoirs and power stations to serve white needs, but completely ignore the power and infrastructure needs on the very reservations where the land was grabbed and the power reservoirs were built by flooding tribal lands guaranteed to never be taken!. Those are facts that cannot be denied!. Those are things we - we are the government - all share a collective and active responsibility for!.!.!. What would the world look like without Spanish priests burning Indians to get them to "convert"!? What would the world look like if others honored their word and didn't murder innocent women and children!? There would be far more Indian people!. It would look much different, because more would have the benefit of native learning and ancient medicines!. In the Europeans' ignorance and belligerence, they lost all of that!. But the colonial Europeans have visited their wanton, arrogant destruction and genocide on many continents, not just this one!. India, Africa, the Middle East, South America all come to mind!. Www@QuestionHome@Com 1) If the Europeans hadn't, someone at some time might have eventually taken it!. I suspect it would be a nation just as powerful as Europe; which would be Asia!. Who knows, maybe America would be a territory of Asia!. 2) If no one had taken America and it was left the exact way it was, then Native Americans would still be ruling it!. They wouldn't be grouped in reservations!. They would be the majority instead of one of the smallest percentage of races here!. Www@QuestionHome@Com Who are you referring to when you say "we" took their land away and killed their people!? I've never taken land away from anyone nor have I ever killed anyone but apparently you have and you understandably feel guilty about it!. You should give back the land you stole, it's the right thing to do but if you killed anyone you should turn yourself in!. No wonder you're depressed, stealing land and killing people would make me depressed too!.Www@QuestionHome@Com I don't feel guilty at all!. I wasn't there, I took nothing from no one!. They could have held the line and stopped whitey in his tracks, IF they united as one!. For a long, long time the indians greatly outnumbered the white man!. But what the liberals in high school and college don't tell you is that the tribes were fighting each other as much as the white man, if not more!. They failed to unify, and they paid the price!. That's how the world worked back then!. If you feel guilty, better move to Europe, because this entire continent belonged to indians at one point!. The indains were not the first ones in the course of history to get screwed!. And they probably won't be the last!.Www@QuestionHome@Com the person above is right i am an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa which in itself is wrong Chippewa is a made up word by some one who couldn't pronounce Ojibwa even then we call ourselves Anishanaube in English it roughly translates to First People when we first arrived there were no people only plants animals and trees prairie was filled with wild game such as deer buffalo rabbits and such and not all natives were Hostile we have always been a peaceful tribe we shared our land with the other natives when they arrived our people come from the great lakes region all the way into the middle of Montana my brother still lives on the very same site that my great great grandfather was born there are still those that know the old ways of cooking tanning and basketry we respect Mother Earth and in turn She provides with animals and fruits and nuts which a great many of us still eat we had no horses so where ever we needed to go we walked no pollution no scarring up digging up the land leave everything how you found it no such things as cold or viruses they came across with everything else small pox chicken pox by the way feel free to look up the mccumber agreement aka ten cent treaty and you will find that we never did get paid for staying on the rez but we still hold pow wows every year in celebrations of the life that we have and the world in which we live don't feel bad history did and always will repeat itself if this land was taken once it will either be taken again or society will destroy to the point where no one will want it but us and once again we will live in peace and harmony it seems like everybody else is bent and determined to argue and fight with each other no one willing to get along be it because of skin color, eye color, who has more money who won't share there is always someone willing to start a fight what happens in the end war when they get tired of fighting over here they go fight over there never satisfied I am the one who feels sad because of all the anger that is generated over nothing but it all seems so important at the time but in our lifetime were there any good warsWww@QuestionHome@Com It would have happened eventualy,but rhetoricaly thinking,had noone ever done it!.Probably flourishing,with beauty and wildlife,If the indians kept to their traditions!.Www@QuestionHome@Com |