Monday, June 15, 2009
Sins against the Indians
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B.E. Goehring
Goehring, is a retired manager from Hardy.
In response to the criticism of Mel Quesenberry's commentary of May 18, "Frontier heroes? Hardly":
In 1906, William Jennings Bryan, as editor-in-chief, compiled 10 volumes of "The World's Greatest Orations." In Volume VIII, we can read the thoughts of some of the great Indian chiefs of the time and judge for ourselves about the ways in which they were coerced, cajoled and deceived into parting with their land.
The stories are all sad, but they seem to be first-person reports on the realities of the time.
Here is what Black Hawk, chief of the Sac Indians, had to say about the white men in 1832: "You know the cause of our making war. It is known to all white men. They ought to be ashamed of it. The white men despise the Indians, and they drive them from their homes. They smile in the face of the poor Indian. They shake him by the hand to gain his confidence, to make him drunk and to deceive him. We told them to leave us alone, and keep away from us. ... They poisoned us by their touch. We were not safe. We live in danger."
Apparently nothing much had changed over the prior two centuries, when a fast-talking Dutchman bought the entire island of Manhattan for $24 worth of liquor and beads.
The truth is that we white men started to populate the continent some 500 years ago, while the American Indians can now trace their lineage back 18,000 years. Does this give some of them cause to feel aggrieved? Step into their moccasins before you make the call.
We are a great nation with much to be proud of. But let's not rewrite history by sweeping under the rug historic facts that are uncomfortable to confront.
