Native Americans misrepresented
http://media.www.tnhonline.com/media/storage/paper674/news/2007/02/13/Commentary/Native.Americans.Misrepresented-2714733.shtml
My recent visit to the US Post Office in downtown Durham
left me outraged by the blatant misrepresentation of our
early pioneer settlers. Displayed upon the walls above
the service counters is a mural that pays tribute to
the numerous positive traits our ancestors possessed that
enabled them to create a new life for us in America.
But displayed among them is a falsehood so great that it
offends me and strikes sadness in my heart. Depicted
beside representations of our ingenuity and strength
is a painting of a Native American Indian preparing to
torch the home of the newly settled Europeans with the
inscription "Cruel Adversity" below.
The insinuation that early European Americans suffered
cruel adversity at the hands of the native inhabitants
is a tragic lie that perpetuates the American historical
myth of the friendly whites against the merciless Indian savages.
While in fact, American pioneers were responsible for
committing the largest act of genocide in the history
of the world, slaughtering and enslaving 100 million Native Americans
(compared to 6 million Jews in the WWII Holocaust)
within a century of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World.
In has been well documented that our young government
systematically removed the native people from their homes
and tortured or killed those who refused to cooperate.
Government bounties were advertised to encourage settlers
to kill the native inhabitants and, in one of our first acts
of biological warfare, blankets infected with small-pox
were intentionally gifted to the Indians.
It is bad enough that we attempt to minimize these atrocities
in our history books. It is shameful and inexcusable to
take any pride in the actions of our white settlers that
resulted in the murder of 95 percent of the original
Native American population.
