treatment of Native Americans

[bobbieinok]

Sand Creek massacre - some of this I read for the first time a year ago in a novel and didn't believe really happened.

BY 1864, the tensions between the white settlers flooding into
Colorado and the Cheyenne Indians, whose land it was, had spilled
over into the Denver newspapers. A front-page editorial urged
"extermination of the red devils" and encouraged the local citizenry
to "take a few months off and dedicate the time to wiping out the
Indians." Disparaging the ongoing treaty negotiations with the
Cheyenne, Major John Chivington, Methodist minister and Civil War
hero, proposed to his church deacons that "the Cheyennes will have to be roundly whipped-or completely wiped out-before they will be quiet. If any of them are caught in your vicinity kill them.... It is simply not possible for Indians to obey or even understand any treaty. I am fully satisfied, gentlemen, that to kill them is the only way we will ever have peace and quiet in Colorado."

On an icy November morning, Chivington led a regiment of Colorado
Volunteers against the unsuspecting Cheyenne villages of Black Kettle and White Antelope at Sand Creek. "Scalps are what we are after," he exhorted his men. "I long to be wading in gore!" Ignoring the American flag flapping over Black Kettle's lodge-an acknowledged sign of truce for all-Chivington's troops slaughtered hundreds of Cheyenne villagers, mostly women and children. As the wounded moaned
unattended, drunken soldiers moved from body to body, scalping,
mutilating, and collecting sordid souvenirs. Fleeing children became
moving targets for marksmen, and several still-living Cheyennes were
scalped. One woman's heart was ripped out and impaled on a stick.
Several soldiers galloped around the battleground, sporting bloody
vaginas as hatbands.

....

more, if you can stand it....


http://archives.econ.utah.edu/archives/marxism/2001/msg05184.htm

[laruemtt]

1. i'm amazed everytime

i hear someone go on and on about what grand principles this country was founded on and what a "christian" country this is. yeah. genocide - a truly grand principle and very "christian." we are built on murder and mayhem. karma's gonna take us under. we deserve it...

[Ms. Clio]

2. This is much of the history of the entire western United States

Yes, it's damned hard to read, isn't it?

[thebaghwan]

3. Don't worry! Let Lynn Cheney put a Good American spin on that story.

Let me see, it would probably go somethin bout ike this. The might of America goes WEst looking for gold. Mankind attacked by half human savages. Eat shit you worthless B****h!

[Ms. Clio]

6. Ha! Careful she'll be suing you for copyright infringment n/t

[Cleita]

4. This is what our European ancestors did, if not personally,

in agreeing with it or ignoring it. We have a big karma debt to pay and this is why we are where we are today. Until we, as a nation, admit we were wrong, crazy people like the Bushistas will rule our lives.

[bigtree]

5. The second worst thing is what we do to their land that we stole

Consider Nevada, 70% government 'owned'. All the government can manage to do with the stolen land is exploit it for its uranium, It's water, and now its geothermal energy is being explored for our government's illegal harvest. Then there is the issue of Yucca mountain, a sacred place. And another sacred place, The 'Artic Wildlife Refuge' is threatened. The small tribe that holds the Alaska land sacred don't themselves set foot on the land. Our government is a poor steward of the land they stole.

[submerged99]

7. The Sand Creek Massacre had it's cheerleaders as well

An editorial from the Rocky Mountain News, which is still one of Denver's major newspapers to this day, begins like this.

>>>Rocky Mountain News (1864)

The Battle of Sand Creek
Among the brilliant feats of arms in Indian warfare, the recent campaign of our Colorado volunteers will stand in history with few rivals, and none to exceed it in final results. <<<<

The third volunteer army then rode throught the streets of denver, to a hero's welcome, waving various body parts as war trophies. To this day, the Rocky Mountain News has NEVER APOLOGIZED for the role their newspaper played in whipping the people of Denver into a frenzy. The RMN was the precursor to such such warmongers like WSJ, NY Post, Wasington Times etc. Not suprisingly, the Rocky Mountain News championed the invasion of Iraq.

I had ancestors that were killed at sand creek. I dont blame all white people for what happened back then..but there does exist a segment that isn't much different from the warmongers of that time. I equate those war mongers of 1864, with the right wing murderers of today. The heirs of the 1864 murderers are people like Rush Limbaugh, WSJ, Chimp & Co and the Freeptards.

I also know that there was an outcry among good people who were aghast at what happened at Sand Creek. They ultimately exposed the massacre and atrocities that were visited upon my ancestors at Sand Creek. I see their heirs, today, as those that oppose U.S injustice, progressives and most of the folks here at the Democratic Underground.

[Ms. Clio]

11. In fact, some people tried to stop it before it happened.

You're right, many people did not condone Sand Creek, just as good people today don't condone the atrocities occurring in Iraq. The army and Congress conducted extensive investigations, and concluded that "gross and wanton outrages" had been committed (sound familiar?)A man named Silas Soule refused to fire on the Indians, and gave devastating testimony against Chivington. He was assassinated by a veteran of one of Colorado's volunteer militia 5 months later.

[Change has come]

8. Unfortunately, genocide wasn't limited to the wild west.

Native people in New England were given "peace" offerings (blankets) that were infected with small pox. People in the Carolina's were force to move to Oklahoma (trail of tears). Every tribe on this continent has suffered atrocities. These folks were in the way of commercial interests. When will we learn?



edited

[Ms. Clio]

10. Yes, you're absolutely right

And the Mexicans were also dispossessed, mistreated, discriminated against, and sometimes massacred.

[Fenris]

9. I jsut finished a Western History course at my university

It is amazing how far back American imperialism go. We are an empire, and have been for a long time. We just have a problem with the word.

[Ms. Clio]

12. "the empire that dare not speak its name" n/t

[Fenris]

13. Shhh!

:P

[i_no_knothing]

14. native american's......they prefer to be called indians.....the logic bein

that anyone born here(america) is native born. I only know the navajo...and that is their take on it......other tribes may disagree. Please correct me if I am wrong.

[Fenris]

15. Actually many prefer to be referred to by their tribe

"Indian" has about the same meaning as "European". They are not, as is often supposed, a single nation or group, but many small groups, with their own distinct languages and cultures.

[scarletwoman]

16. I'm glad you posted this, it's very relevant.

I've been thinking about all the atrocities that have been committed in this country since its very founding -- beginning with the genocide of the indigenous people, the slave trade, on up to lynchings and Jim Crow.

Vile acts have perpetrated in this country by the European invaders from the very beginning, and all the while the myth of American "righteousness" has been repeated ad nauseum.

Denial runs deep in the American psyche...

sw