Harry Reid to Redskins’ owner: He’s throwing a few blankets to the Indians

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) weighed in on Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder’s new foundation to help Native Americans on Thursday and slammed the controversial owner for ‘throwing a few blankets at the Indians’ to get a nice tax break.

“Dan Snyder, he’s got a great new deal,” the Senate Majority Leader said. “He’s going to throw a few blankets to the Indians and get a tax deduction for it.”

In the late 1700s, Europeans fighting in the French and Indian War distributed blankets infested with smallpox to Native Americans as a way to combat their enemy.

Reid went on to slam Snyder, who has refused to change the name of his team despite many calls to do so — including one from President Barack Obama. Saying the controversial Redskins owner was on the “wrong side of history,” the Nevada senator said it wasn’t a matter of if the team’s name will be changed, but when.

“I think the name will be changed within the next three years,” Reid said. “You know, I may slip a year or two, but I think it’s just a question of time. Because Native Americans are organized. We have Native Americans who now are not all poor. We’ve got these Indian gaming establishments who have money, who are going to help with this. And Dan Snyder’s not the only person in the world with money.”

Reid went on to reference the Washington-area basketball team, the Washington Wizards. Formerly the Washington Bullets, the team changed its name in 1997 because of its violent overtones.

“We’re all used to the Washington Wizards,” the Senate Majority Leader said. “And I don’t know what [the Redskins] will change the name to, but we’ll get used to it.”

In an attempt to silence critics calling on Snyder to change his team’s name, the owner announced the creation of the Washington Redskins Original Americans Foundation earlier this week. The organization will attempt to help Native Americans in need.

It is despicable Harry Reid attack to Redskins’ owner. It is diffamatory and racist to affirm that “He’s throwing a few blankets to the Indians.”< /p>

According to the article “In the late 1700s, Europeans fighting in the French and Indian War distributed blankets infested with smallpox to Native Americans as a way to combat their enemy. “

That was a murderous biological war, but, Why to inculpate the Europeans in general and not the real culprits? This event is best-known for the use of biological warfare when the British Army at Fort Pitt infected the besieging Native Americans with smallpox using blankets.

With the arrival of the Europeans to America, also arrived new pathogens and diseases, among them, smallpox was the main culprit for the great mortality among the Native Americans.

The first successful smallpox vaccine to be developed was introduced by English Physician, Edward Jenner, in 1798. By 1800, Jenner's work had been published in all the major European languages. Jenner, developed a vaccine against the smallpox by using the cowpox pathogen as an agent.

At the beginning of the 19th century Spain set a milestone in medical history for the control of contagious diseases. The Spanish Crown sent Spanish America an expedition commanded by Francisco Javier de Balmis, with the mission to spread the vaccine throughout the Spanish Empire, first to the Canary Islands and on to Spanish Central America. While his deputy, José Salvany, took vaccine to the west and east coasts of Spanish South America, Balmis sailed to Manila in the Philippines and on to Canton and Macao on the Chinese coast. He returned to Spain in 1806.

As American historian, Dr. Philip Wayne Powel, points out in his book, “The Tree of Hate”, as soon as a vaccine was available, “an enlightened Spanish government sponsored very early use of vaccination against smallpox, precisely because the disease was so dangerous to the Indian population.”

Along with the gospel, the Spaniards brought the western medical knowledge to America. There was never any attempt of genocide of the Indians on behalf of the Crown, to the contrary. As historian Salvador de Madariaga indicates, “the Spanish Crown constantly reiterated its paramount interest in the natives, this has been a constant feature of the regime, even in its worst days and in the worst governed parts.”

Spain founded 23 universities and colleges in colonial America, something without parallel in the history. Thousands of schools, hospitals, hospices, orphanages, mental asylums, and leper colonies throughout Hispanic America were founded under the initiative of the Crown of Spain, the Church and many Spaniards who came to the New World, and once they became wealthy and decided to remain, they donated great amounts of money for the maintenance and upkeep of charitable works that would benefit the people; institutions that were open to everyone, Spaniards, Indians, Mestizos and Blacks

“We have Native Americans who now are not all poor. We’ve got these Indian gaming establishments who have money, who are going to help with this. And Dan Snyder’s not the only person in the world with money.””

That’s for sure. Harry Reid has lots of money. And unlike the owner of the Redskins, Harry’s money has been obtained through semi-crooked deals, undoubtedly outright crooked deals, slimy deals, underhanded deals, deals at the taxpayers’ expense, and just plain old dirty deals. He sure didn’t make all his money on his salary alone. He came to Congress relatively poor, and will be leaving Congress (only when they either carry him out on a slab, or if alive with his bony hand still desperately hanging onto the drapes) a very rich man. Dirty Harry disgusts me, the flamin’ hypocrite.

According to biohistorian professor, Alfred W. Crosby, Jr., 30 to 50% of the American aborigines were killed by the smallpox. In his book “The Columbian Exchange – Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 “ you will get a great deal of information about the biological, ecological and social impact of the encounter of the Old and the New World.

The “Tree of Hate” - Propaganda and prejudices Affecting United States Relations with the Hispanic World by Dr. Philip Wayne Powell, Emeritus professor of History of the University of California in Santa Barbara, is invaluable for those who want to delve into the history of Colonial America.

In the essay “Myth and Reality: The Legacy of Spain in America” By: Jesus J. Chao there are interesting facts and sources that might surprise to many who are not familiar with this theme http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/808686/posts

After the French and Indian War the British recurred at biological warfare during the siege of Fort Pitt. Smallpox had broken out at Fort Pitt (in Pittsburgh, PA) in 1763, and the Commander of the Fort proposed giving blankets infected with smallpox to American Indians. British Field Marshal Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst approved the plan, he was a known advocate of the extermination of Native Americans and expressed his willingness to adopt any "other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race." Amherst's resorting to smallpox was not unique as the British also deployed smallpox against native tribes in New South Wales in Australia in 1789.

The disgraceful accusation that U.S. Army used smallpox infested blankets in the Indians wars, was made by Ward Churchill whose academic misconducts included charges of plagiarism, fabrication, and falsification at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where Churchill was a professor. On May 16, 2006, the investigative committee released its findings that Churchill had been "disrespectful of Indian oral traditions”, and the University's Standing Committee on Research Misconduct voted that Churchill should be dismissed.

Americans never gave smallpox blankets to any Indians anywhere at anytime. Not the government, not the Army, not anyone. So we are absolved on that one. The incident in question occurred in 1763, before there even was a USA, before there even were Americans. And American colonists (pre-Americans) didn’t do it either. It was the British that done the deed.

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