"Indians" are supposed to be grateful, did you know that?

Before Europeans arrived, the scattered tribes occupying North America lived in abject poverty, ignorance, and superstition--not due to any racial inferiority, but because that is how all mankind starts out (Europeans included). The transfer of Western civilization to this continent was one of the great cultural gifts in recorded history, affording Indians almost effortless access to centuries of European accomplishments in philosophy, science, technology, and government. As a result, today's Indians enjoy a capacity for generating health, wealth, and happiness that their Stone Age ancestors could never have conceived.

From a historical perspective, the proper response to such a gift is not resentment but gratitude. America's policies toward the Indians were generally benign, aimed at protecting them from undeserved harm while providing significant material support and encouragement to become civilized. When those policies erred, it was usually by treating Indians collectively, as "nations" entitled to permanent occupancy of semi-sovereign reservations. Instead, Indians should have been treated as individuals deserving full and equal American citizenship in exchange for embracing individual rights, including private ownership of land.

I would think that it would follow that being that the ARI is the official representative of Ayn Rand's legacy and philosophy, the positions they and their lead writers show would, of course, be deeply referenced in reality. This is not. To add insult to that injury, it projects the same kind of arrogant colonialism that the British had when they controlled us. This is revisionist history. I guess he gets a few points for pointing out that it's not a racial thing.

With rare exceptions, European visitors to this continent acted like demons. What was done to the "Indians" was business-as-usual for any Atilla-type. They killed, tortured, raped, and stole. Consider what Europeans did in the Aleutians, realizing it was rich with sea otters, one pelt of which was more than an average seaman made in a year. They held the families of Indian men hostage, and forced them to help them hunt otters under threat of killing their loved ones. Europeans also introduced (likely via violently sport-fucking Indian women) trendy Euro-diseases like syphillis. Christianity (their creepy versions of it, which must have been quite curious to an indigenous people practicing an earth-based religion) was often forced on them at gunpoint. Native Americans were not seen as indigenous people, but as, as Mr. Bowden seems to see them: stone-age savages. Savages with organized tribal structures, art, religion (arguably more benign than the white man's) music, dance, the ability to construct a myriad of ergonomic, efficient habitats, language, sign language, refined tools, agriculture, and so on. On the level of ecological efficiency, and general hygiene, there is a case to be made for saying they were more advanced than the Europeans. They probably didn't stink as much. 

As far as the glorious, "almost effortless transfer of Western civilization to this continent," we could go on and on. For the sake of brevity, why don't we talk about mandatory Indian Boarding School, a progressive social experiment brought to us in 1878 by a wonderful fellow named Capt. Richard Pratt.There's a bevy of info on this whole debacle, one place to look at is: http://www.kporterfield.com/aicttw/articles/boardingschool.html

A few select highlights from that site concerning operational procedures (note that Pratt was a soldier, not an educator): 

• Many boarding schools were established far away from reservations so that students would have no contact with their families and friends. Parents were discouraged from visiting and, in most cases, students were not allowed to go home during the summer.
  
  
• Indian boarding school students wore military uniforms and were forced to march.
  
  
• They were given many rules and no choices. To disobey meant swift and harsh punishment.
  
  
• Students were forbidden to speak their language.
  
  
• They were forbidden to practice their religion and were forced to memorize Bible verses and the Lord’s Prayer.
  
  
• Their days were filled with so many tasks that they had little time to think.
  
  
• Indian students had no privacy.
  
  
• Boarding school students were expected to spy on one another and were pitted against each other by administrators and teachers.
  
  
• Students were taught that the Indian way of life was savage and inferior to the white way. They were taught that they were being civilized or "raised up" to a better way of life.
  
  
• Indian students were told that Indian people who retained their culture were stupid, dirty, and backwards. Those who most quickly assimilated were called "good Indians." Those who didn’t were called "bad" Indians.
  
  
• The main part of their education focused on learning manual skills such as cooking and cleaning for girls and milking cows and carpentry for boys.
  
  
• Students were shamed and humiliated for showing homesickness for their families.
  
  
• When they finally did go home, as to be expected, many boarding school students had a difficult time fitting in.
  
  

 

(Edited by Rich Engle on 7/01, 12:14pm)

(Edited by Rich Engle on 7/01, 12:16pm)