Posted on 03/08/2007 5:24:52 AM PST by SJackson
"We tryed it on them twice and now there's more of them than ever." - P.J. O'Rourke
The exchange took place during Pontiac's Rebellion, which broke out after the war, in 1763. Forces led by Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawa who had been allied with the French, laid siege to the English at Fort Pitt.
According to historian Francis Parkman, Amherst first raised the possibility of giving the Indians infected blankets in a letter to Colonel Henry Bouquet, who would lead reinforcements to Fort Pitt. No copy of this letter has come to light, but we do know that Bouquet discussed the matter in a postscript to a letter to Amherst on July 13, 1763:
P.S. I will try to inocculate the Indians by means of Blankets that may fall in their hands, taking care however not to get the disease myself. As it is pity to oppose good men against them, I wish we could make use of the Spaniard's Method, and hunt them with English Dogs. Supported by Rangers, and some Light Horse, who would I think effectively extirpate or remove that Vermine.
On July 16 Amherst replied, also in a postscript:
P.S. You will Do well to try to Innoculate the Indians by means of Blanketts, as well as to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race. I should be very glad your Scheme for Hunting them Down by Dogs could take Effect, but England is at too great a Distance to think of that at present.
On July 26 Bouquet wrote back:
I received yesterday your Excellency's letters of 16th with their Inclosures. The signal for Indian Messengers, and all your directions will be observed.
We don't know if Bouquet actually put the plan into effect, or if so with what result. We do know that a supply of smallpox-infected blankets was available, since the disease had broken out at Fort Pitt some weeks previously. We also know that the following spring smallpox was reported to be raging among the Indians in the vicinity.
To modern ears, this talk about infecting the natives with smallpox, hunting them down with dogs, etc., sounds over the top. But it's easy to believe Amherst and company were serious. D'Errico provides other quotes from Amherst's correspondence that suggest he considered Native Americans subhumans who ought to be exterminated. Check out his research for yourself at www.nativeweb.org/pages/l egal/amherst/lord_jeff.html. He not only includes transcriptions but also reproduces the relevant parts of the incriminating letters.
I consider the Muslims who behead captives as subhuman. The brutality of the Indians was far worse than what the Muslims have done.
At the time small pox was killing 400,000 people per year in Europe and had a high white mortality rate here. The cause was unknown but the relationship between exposure and contracting the disease was. Only those who had had the disease and recovered would even think of handling an "infested" blanket. The outbreak that followed doesn't seem to coincide with the letters or the supposed delivery.
I really detest all this PC garbage.
Granted this was not the American Government. But to argue that the American government has always dealt fairly with the Indians is absurd.
What a crock. If "we" hadn't "invaded," she wouldn't have a platform for her stupdity.
Yes, the Lunatics of Political Correctness. They've been running things since the 1960s.
The story of the human past is the story of invasion and conquest. It may really be the "end of history" as western civ at least has seemed to abandon these ancient principles.
But the Arabs were unified through warfare. They used to be isolated tribes until Muhammad and the Caliphs brought them together through conquest.
Dixon believes that at the siege by the Indians at Fort Pitt, two Indian chiefs who came to parley with the besiegers on June 24, 1763, were in fact given two blankets and a handkerchief that had been in the smallpox hospital in the fort.
Dixon, who it is clear in his writing is far from a friend of the British imperialists, points out, however, that the evidence indicates the supposedly infected blankets had no effect. The two Indian chiefs, Turtle's Heart and Maumaultee, came to parley again with the besieged garrison on July 26, a full month after receiving the blankets. The incubation period for smallpox is two weeks, and there was no sign of smallpox among the two chiefs or any of the Indian force besieging Fort Pitt. Also, the letter by General Sir Jeffrey Amherst suggesting it would be good if the Indians contracted smallpox was sent AFTER (July 7) the blanket-giving incident occurred, and the giving of the blankets was therefore NOT in furtherance of General Amherst's desire.
However, Dixon cites eyewitness accounts of the smallpox epidemic breaking out among the Indians at this time BEFORE the blanket-giving incident at Fort Pitt. Among the frontier communities where the Indians launched raids were at least two in which there had been a smallpox outbreak, and it appears the Indians picked up the disease in the course of slaughtering the inhabitants. The Indians sowed the wind, and reaped the whirlwind.
The Indians themselves tried to bring disease among the whites by placing the dead carcass of a horse in a well used by the frontier community in the area of Fort Ligonier.
This blanket-giving incident has been distorted far out of proportion to its actual significance by left-leaning ideologues in order to serve a more modern political agenda.
They do this in order to sweep under the rug the treacherous way in the Indians broke the peace, the savage cruelty the Indians employed in murdering a large number of people at the British garrisons and in the frontier communities, including many people who had surrendered to the Indians.
Episodes like the ritual cannibalism in which the victorious Indians after overcoming the defenders of Fort Detroit boiled and ate the corpse of a British soldier, are swept under the rug.
Or that Pontiac's uprising was really an attempt at ethnic cleansing, as demonstrated by Pontiac's own words to his fellow Indians:
"It is important for us, my brothers, that we exterminate from our land this nation which seeks only to destroy us. You see as well as I that we can no longer supply our needs, as we have done from our brothers, the French....Therefore, my brothers, we must all swear their destruction and wait no longer. Nothing prevents us; they are few in numbers, and we can accomplish it."
Subhuman? I wouldn't use that term, but the behavior of the Indians demonstrated the absolute lowest depths to which human beings can sink in depravity and cruelty.
As with most things now, this is a spiritual battle between Good and Evil... one side believes that war and death are the ultimate and highest wrongs and are to be condemned and avoided at all costs and the other side believes (rightly) that death comes no matter and the ultimate wrong is going to hell.
jw
Sadly, I wonder how many school children today even know what Jamestown was?
Does this mean no more celebrations at Normandy or Anzio, either? No more MacArthur pageants?
Must we ban The Charge of the Light Brigade?
It is now, but only because they were run out of northern Colorado & most of Wyoming several hundred years ago.
They also found less than enthusiastic welcomes in Nebraska & Kansas, while on their way to their present digs. Think NANA--No Apache Need Apply--as the policy of the tribes whose land they were invading moving through.
For that matter, the Lakota only possessed "their" sacred Black Hills around about 300 years ago, driving out other tribes when they pushed west, out of Minnesota. Believe me, they did not use a reputable Realtor for the transaction, nor even offer "$24 worth of beeds" for their new "ancestral home".
First, these "Native Americans" INVADED North America, pushing out, destroying, or otherwise supplanting the previous cultures. After that, they milled around fighting (and sometimes eating) each other incessantly for new places to live, until the white man found them.
The last time we were at Jamestowne, the clerks who dealt with our entry to the settlement were all Eastern European. Talk about an invasion!
That's multiculturalism. Celebrate diversity and encourage the validation of every tribe and culture but ours.
For us, the invalidation of America.
Wholeheartedly agree.
:o])
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.