If you don’t like this country and are ashamed of it’s past, I suggest you get on an airplane and leave. No one is keeping you here.
I want these loons to name ONE culture that doesn’t have blood on its hands.
Count me out on your guilt trip.
“My ancestors” didn’t show up in North America until 1875, well past all that “stuff”. They were a persecuted minority in the Old Country, having made the decision that the US was better than *home* - they just moved.
Go play that ‘sins of your fathers’ game with someone else, someone that gives a shi...hoot. I don’t....
People need to read “The Frontiersman”, by Allen Eckert.
My folks didn’t get here until the 1840’s or ‘50’s. I’ve been told more than once that I look like an Indian (those high cheekbones just like Senator Granny Warren, among other things), so I hereby exempt myself from feeling any guilt. If anything I deserve a check for the suffering of MY PEOPLE...Err...People that have my cheekbones...
Feel guilty? Donate your land to an Indian tribe and STFU.
I was subjected to “Native American” history this past weekend thanks to a lib friend. One of the most boring, prehistoric cultures I’ve ever run up against. No wheel, twigs for food, violence and screeching songs (we had to listen to two or three ditties). No wonder we ran them out of town.
It was a war of conquest, no matter how the history books define it.
Both sides were known to practice incredible cruelty, both sides massacred populations, both sides broke treaties, both sides enslaved captives to some degree.
One side prevailed partly because of technology, partly because of asymmetrical warfare, and partly because of cultural differences.
The shameful treatment wasn't so much military as procedural, conducted by bureaucrats and lawyers, but then the blue-coated soldiers and Government Agents had learned a lot from the Carpetbaggers.
The vast majority of Native American death during the period of European colonization was due to disease. It was inevitable, it would have happened no matter what the circumstances. Because the people of the American landmass were separated totally from the Eurasian-African sphere, they were doomed. As soon as the Native Americans came into contact with peoples from across the Atlantic or Pacific, the microbes they encountered would have wiped them out. Even if the Native Americans sailed from the Aztec Empire to Cadiz, and conquered Spain, they would have been doomed, like “War of the Worlds”. The only way the people of the Americas could have been saved is if human technology never advanced beyond the 9th Century.
Honestly, I cannot think of a single thing of this sort from 200 years ago that I care about except as a historical curiosity. What nationality invaded who, what Indian tribe was wiped out, what settlement the Indians burned, what the pope did in 1803, how mean was the French revolution,,, etc.
Only a jackass would carry animosity for something from back then.
The question to be asked is: Is the way we treat others the way we want to be treated? If the answer is no, then perhaps we need to exercise some introspection. If the answer is yes, well, have at it.
The truth is that the natives did most of the eviscerating. Literally.
The body count heavily favored the Indians, from the very beginning until the later 19th century when technology finally made some difference. They were fearsome.
The Indians were rarely defeated in either open battle or the constant guerrilla war. They were out bred and out-immigrated, and thus outnumbered. Euro-American losses could thus be replaced, while the Indians, living in a subsistence economy with a low population replacement rate, could not.
Family tradition has us descended from Pocahontas. Can’t prove it, but it’s not at all implausible when you trace the family tree and the history attached.
So, my native part forgives my English part for ruining the neighborhood.
And my English part forgives my native part for all the vicious atrocities committed by the Powhatans, like those that were perpetrated against the Virginia settlers in 1622. I’m positive that my Proctor ancestors had to endure that.
http://www.virtualjamestown.org/phatmass.html
There.
Now move on with life and thank God you’re an American.
On the other hand, I can't obsess over what the two-legged animals did to the white settlers 150-200 years ago. The Indians lost a vicious primitive war. They lost the war, let them deal with it.
My ancestors conquered a continent and built the richest, most powerful nation on earth.
No. I am not a bit ashamed.
My 13th great grandfather was John Rolfe, the man who married Pocahontas. I have another 13th great grandfather that lived in Jamestown in the early 1600’s with him, John Price. My family, or a few branches of anyway, have been here for a long time. Nonetheless, I refuse to feel guilty for any wrongs my ancestors may or may not have done. In fact, I feel quite the opposite. I am proud to be about to claim such a legacy, that my family helped found this once great country. They were greater men than me, to be sure.
Nope. My family didn’t arrive till well after all the Indian wars and stuff were over. We didn’t have any part in it, so why should I feel guilty?
It’s stupid to hold grudges for hundreds or even thousands of years. Stuff happens. Deal with it. Get over it, and move forward.
My ancestors bought the land grant (1641, MD) from the two local tribes of Nanticoke and Powhatan who were fighting over it. That’s right, both tribes. Not guilty.
ping