Comments on: What Do We Owe the Indians?

By: notsofast

notsofast — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 05:55:23 +0000

Its very simple really. One group of people lived off the land nomatic, roaming foraging. This does not allow for large population. Then along comes another group, with a way to use the land to support a larger population (farming, and industrialization). The indians often resisted this, and held on tight, Result confict, and losing lands. Case closed. Its over now move on. Enough living in past, blaming this group or goverment. The world is modernized, the planet has 7 billion people. We all want to roam around on a horse and drink from clear steams,, but its not going to happen. Modernization is really what it was, just it came from the hands of whites. but also blacks, chinese ect who expanded the west and built the country to what it is now. And dont forget in 1850s life was brutal and a crap shot for anyone on the frontier period.

By: subtleabuses

subtleabuses — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 08:54:00 +0000

In Lake County, for instance, which has two state parks renowned for rich American Indian resources, a lawsuit drags on over a couple's landscaping project.

In 2006, the state parks department filed suit against William and Lee Ann Gilbert, alleging that the couple wreaked havoc in a state-owned conservation easement on their private island.

According to court documents, the Gilberts bought 10-acre Indian Island in Clear Lake in 2002, which included a 1.5-acre easement owned by the state parks department since 1982.

The state contends the Gilberts ripped up the easement to plant grapevines, clearing natural vegetation and "destroying" a piece of American Indian rock art.

"We've got to let people know this is not OK," said Marilyn Linkem, supervisor of the parks department's Northern Buttes District.

By: RAY CHANDLER

RAY CHANDLER — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:38:31 +0000

It's politically correct (that repulsive term) to feel sorry for the Indians. Sorry, but I don't. Theirs was the fate of any people conquered by a technologically and culturally more advanced people. That coupled with deaths by disease that resulted from mere contact of the two peoples rather than some deliberate act. This, according to some estimates, killed off as many as 90 percent of the Indians who died.

As for breaking the treaties, this is par for the course with any government. None can really be trusted, that's why the Founders set out to form one that was small, limited and non-intrusive. But I digress …

The Indians, for the most part, simply suffered the fate of the dinosaur … just suck it down and get over it.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 00:57:33 +0000

There comes a point when the world has to move past the "an eye for an eye" mentality, that time is now.

Sorry if you've found yourself with an unavenged poked eye at this point in history but if we ever want to have fairness we've going to have to wipe the slate clean and not blame people for the sins of their ancestors and stop using the injustices perpetrated upon ours as a crutch.

By: Roxy, Claassen

Roxy, Claassen — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 01:10:50 +0000

I am native and, have a college education. Now maybe if all the broken promises of the many treaty's had been carried through, our people would not have the burdens they have now. The US government put the military in action and signed on indian agents. way before the treatys. Not to mention the use of the Jesuits and Christians to make us change our traditions. This is considered unconstitutional now a days. How many immigrants from over seas were forced to change thier religion? This being a free country and this a history article my main complaint is the way the white historians made it sound so romantistic regarding the Native Peoples. There are records held in Washingtonn DC. There are records held in Oklahoma and you have to personally go there to get copies. Lets start releasing some of that truth. I feel that these records should be available on written request. So that the Native peoples can publish that material. These people who are inn deed in the dark and unwilling to accept other race's should find an Island were they can be happy. I hear so much negative talk towards any people of color, then why are you in America? The downgrading of the very same people to whom the forfathers of this country brought here in the first place were used as slaves. Because they didn't have enough of the Natives to do thier dirty work. My ansestors were used as house maids. So I guess we knew how to work back then and with the proper education our native children could prosper. But because alcohol was a favorite drink aomong the people who landed here could not resist in passing this on to who ever they wanted to rip off. So what now? Give us what is due to us so that we as Native people can build our communitys and have nice houses, parks, theaters, and creating jobs for our people on the reservations.

By: Sue

Sue — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:51:49 +0000

Brenda – your ignorance of history and especially American Indian history is mind boggling. Every treaty ever signed by the tribes and the U.S. Government has been broken – by the government NOT the Indians. Former Secretary of The Interior Gail Norton was held in contempt for not following the guidlines of the Justice Dept. "Republican John McCain of Arizona, a member of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, who calls the fund's mismanagement a "national scandal,", "US District Judge Royce Lamberth, who is hearing the case. "I've never seen more egregious misconduct by the federal government," They have been robbed of mineral, land and oil rights by big business with the governments consent for centuries. If a treaty gave them a certain parcel of land and then gold, silver, oil, etc were found on that land it was over run by Americans and when the Indians retaliated against this egregious theft then the government sent in the Army to kill them. This was the reason for Little Big Horn. The indians got fed up and banded together to fight the Army that was protecting the invaders. Brush up on your history before you denigrate entire cultures and peoples.

By: Brenda

Brenda — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:44:32 +0000

At WHAT POINT are people going to QUIT using EXCUSES for what the "white man" has done to them……and GET UP AND DO SOMETHING WITH THE LIFE THEY HAVE NOW!?! We CANT change History. NOTHING AT ALL can be done for EVERY SINGLE PERSON WHO HAS SEEN EVIL in THEIR lives….or been TREATED BADLY.
And WHAT will $$$$$ do to HELP THEM get OVER their PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS history? Every SINGLE nationality has seen SOME kind of EVIL towards THEIR nationality. Why should a WHITE MAN PAY ANYTHING for BEING WHITE???? I KNOW I did NOT have ANYTHING TO DO WITH WHAT HAS HAPPENED IN HISTORY…so WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO REPAY ANYONE FOR THEIR HARDSHIP in life NOW???? Quit looking in the past for an EXCUSE to use today!
I QUARANTEE if ANY of THESE indians WANTED to GO WHERE THE WORK IS….LIKE MOST AMERICANS…THEY TOO could work, have a home and a GOOD life……..but INSTEAD….LIKE SO MANY nationalities in this country….THEY would RATHER blame the white man for being a STRONG nationality and MAKING THEIR WAY IN LIFE…using the SAME resources AVAILABLE to ALL in THIS COUNTRY!!!

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:28:09 +0000

We don't owe the Native Americans anything. Civilizations have always risen up to expand their territories and history has shown that the weaker civilizations have always fallen to the smaller ones. It happened with the Romans, it happened with the Mongols, it happened with the US in this case, and it even happened with Germany and Japan in World War II. I'm not saying it's right or wrong, this is just the way it is and always will be; the stronger civilization will always overpower the weaker one: WAR is not meant to be a fair fight.

By: John

John — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:29:44 +0000

I think the first thing we owe the Indians is an honest look at history. The rationalizations used for destruction of tribal sovereignty, especially after the American Revolution, were mostly bogus and inspired by greed. The sort of racism used to make this process palatable has been a staple of American culture ever since, though it has improved in the last 30 years or so. The most comprehensive destruction of American Indians, incidentally, took place in California, where the tribes were small, scattered, and not very warlike. Many of the warrior tribes are more numerous today than they were at the time of contact. The peaceful tribes were largely exterminated. However there are some doubts about the smallpox-in-the-blankets stories — smallpox contagion was probably accident. Wounded Knee took place in 1890, not 1861, and the weapons were Hotchkiss guns, not Gatling guns. The murder of a large number of women and children, however, is completely factual. Both sides did this — but in movies or the older history books, only the Indians did it….I think all unused land contiguous to or adjacent to large groups of Indians should be returned to the control of tribal governments for use in farming, ranching, gathering, tourism, whatever and that transfer of land now leased to ranchers should not be allowed beyond the linear family. American Indians are exceptionally intelligent people and given an absence of government and corporate interference they could probably cure their own "poverty problem" in a single generation.

By: S. Wesley Mcgranor

S. Wesley Mcgranor — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 00:08:15 +0000

We dont owe the Indians anything…

P.S. Stop eminent domain abuse!