From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sun Sep 08 2002 - 21:12:25 MDT
On Sun, 8 Sep 2002, Samantha Atkins, responding to me wrote:
> Go read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" if you haven't already. Then we
> will talk.
I haven't read it and won't for the purposes of this discussion.
Yes, I have no doubt that the American's committed a number of
atrocities and treated native Americans unfairly. For example
this review cites the "racism" by most whites against native
Americans:
http://www.2think.org/woundedknee.shtml
I would class it as little different from the "racism" by most
whites against blacks or chinese during that era of American
development.
But no matter how many thousands were murdered by actions
approved by the American government there is a long history
before the 1800's that must be discussed. This includes
the French and Indian War over a century earlier and
numerous acts by the British, French and Spanish and probably
other governments against various Indian nations. So all
of the blood is not on the hands of the "Americans".
Most importantly I *still* stand by my statement that a
significant majority of the native Americans (most likely
90+%) died at the hands of microbes and *not* by arrows
or bullets shot by white folks.
If you want to present some hard data that contradicts that
assertion I'd be happy to retract it. (This is based on
my background in microbiology and my readings over the last
decade or so of the effects of various plagues -- I don't
have authoritative references handy but I'm relatively sure
they would be easy to find).
Robert
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