[SMARTY]

What do you think about the program?

[rockinqsranch]

It’s PBS. Positively BullScoot.

[cripplecreek]

The extent of brutal guerrila warfare that went on in the midwest has been largely forgotten by history. Everybody fought in the woods and swamps of the midwest. British, french, spanish, American, indian, you name it.

See tagline.

[Huck]

It's racist and simplistic to view the conquest of North America as white vs. red. The "whites" were not monolithic; they were not acting in concert. They were in competition. The conquest of North America was like a bar brawl that spills out into the street. The Indians were merely bystanders.

The "whites" didn't treat the Indians any worse or differently than they had treated each other for as long as recorded history. History tells a story of brutal competition between rival factions. It was a world of conquer or be conquered. The Indians were not even in the game. They were incapable of governing themselves, and thus incapable of handling their contact with the European powers. It was their destiny to be conquered.

This brutal competition between European powers didn't do us any favors either. One of the reasons our quaint, limited government was transformed into the centralized monster we see today is because the leaders of the Union had to worry about Europe. They had to have a government capable of standing up to that sort of competition. Were it not for that fact, we might still be a small confederacy of states.

[AngryJawa]

This planet, not just the Americas, has ALWAYS been realigned through warfare and invasion. This includes tribe on tribe genocides by native Americans long before a white man ever set foot on this ground. It is a fact of human history as old as the race itself. Newsflash: This will not change.

What is new, however, is this brand of self-hating handwringing that idle intellectuals insist on inflicting on the rest of us. It's a testament to the success of Western Culture (thus far) that these fools have the time for and can get paid for such nonproductive, valueless claptrap.

[onedoug]

Nothing about widespread cannibalism by American aborigines I´d bet.

[CanaGuy]

If you want a first hand description of the true condition of life in the “Wild West”, circa 1840’s, pick up a copy of “The Oregon Trail” by Francis Parkman, a vivid historical account of the author’s adventures on the open frontier and his encounters with the Plains Indians. You will discover, as I did, the dishonesty and fabrications of Hollywood in such revisionist pulp as, “Dances with Wolves”.

[Sans-Culotte]

Make no mistake… I feel that there is almost NO population in this hemisphere which got a worse deal than Native Americans.

I don't know that I'd agree with that. Europe went through the same thing as the more advanced civilizations basically wiped out the indigenous barbarous people (Caesar against the Gauls, Charlemagne's conquests, etc). The American treatment of the Indians and the American institution of slavery are mentioned so often because it gives America haters (both here an abroad) an excuse to spit on America.

[Ditter]

I didn't see the program but I do know some Native Americans and the idea that they were environmentalist is a laugh. the reason they moved their camps from place to place was because they so completely trashed out an area they had to move to a clean spot.

[max americana]

The last, decent PBS special I watched (then owned) was REVOLUTION’ wherein the characters were explaining to the camera on segments why they rebelled against the British.

I even saw Philip Seymour Hoffman in the documentary as a young conscript in the Colonial Army. Truly the best documentary about the American Revolution.

[SunkenCiv]

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