[Stepan12]

Civilization and savagery cannot co exist. One has to lose to the other. <

The coming of the white man was a net benefit to the white man and the indian living in North America.

P.S. Everyone born here is a native American. No one group has the right to arrogate such a title.

[Cronos]

well, for classification, what term would you use to define a person who identifies with a pre-columbus ethnicity?

[Cronos]

Also, in some cases the native Americans were civilised -- I'm thinking of the Pueblo Indians -- and city dwellers

civilised is also a loaded word, do we mean a passed down culture or a city dwelling culture? Native epics etc? i mean, at what point do we say that for instance the English were civilised? Was it when they were Christianized? When the literacy levels went more than 50%?

[Sacajaweau]

The idea that Native americans have some special rights is ludicrous. They were nomads. Conquering territory wa the rule both for the world and the indians at the time.

[stuartcr]

Who gets to define civilization and savagely?

[stuartcr]

Who gets to define civilization and savagely?

[Strategerist]

The coming of the white man was a net benefit to the white man and the indian living in North America.

Well, if you consider being dead a benefit over being alive, as is true of the millions that died of disease.

Of course, the disease deaths (which exceeded the actual killings of native Americans probably by a factor of 10) weren't deliberate, and they would have happened even if the Europeans had visited in small numbers to conduct multicultural diversity seminars and then left; of course there was no understanding at the time of how infectious disease was transmitted, either.

[uncommonsense]

"Civilization and savagery cannot co exist. One has to lose to the other."

And those who aren't ready to get back to frontier living are going to be licking the boots of their ultra organized, high tech masters.

[gimme1ibertee]

P.S. Everyone born here is a native American.

THANK YOU!! I get so sick of hearing this phrase applied to American Indians!

I was born here; my parents were born here; my grandparents were born here. I am indigenous to this land. I am native to it. Period.

Same thing applies to "African-Americans" whose grandparents and parents were born in Savannah,GA,Poughkeepsie,NY or Selma,AL. You're black.Get over it.