The aboriginal americans of this country where given two options abandon your culture and be "assimilated" or be killed. You people dont consider the mass organized slaughter of the buffalo (the main food source of the plains indians) an act of systematic destruction with the goal of racial extermination? You people dont consider the abduction and forced attendance of Indian children to schools that taught them their "place" in society and obliterated all trace of cultural identity a systematic act of cultural extermination?
We were fighting a war. War gets ugly in order to win. Unfortunatly, the leaders of the day were a rough stock of people, and ignorant. A war was inevitible. Compare the Indian way of life to ours. As the population grew something would have to give. So yes, it was assimilate, or resist. I do feel though, that if they would have resisted less, and ACCEPTED defeat, they would have fared much better. Instead, being an inspired people, they fought, bravely, till the death. Things could have been done better on both sides. No arguement there. Survival of the fittest is the law.
What really gets my goat is when people say that because Indians are the "losers" of history they shouldnt complain. Fine just as long as you modern "losers" of the cultural war stop complaining about the dillution of the "true culture" of America. Stop complaining about "christian persecution" "abortion on demand" "our vulnerable border" and "the assault on marriage". Why? Because despite all you say about the "moral majority" if there wasn't an overwhelming demand for these things they would not exist, your losing the cultural war and what you did in the past is irelevant.
Well, really why should they complain? Why shouldnt they take advantage of all that is made available to them. I did one google search on "benefits for native americans" and got 712,494 results back.
As far as your babble about culture war, all I can say is "huh?!" Not only does it do NOTHING to your arguement, its entirely incorrect. First of all, what is there an overwhelming demand for? "Things" Could you possibly be any more vague? Also, just because you see things on tv does mean the overwhelming majority of this country agrees with you. If that was the case, John Kerry would have won. Everyone I knew thought he was going to win. Why? Because they are 21-30 yrs old. They fit the demographic. All tv they watch is loaded with pro-kerry and anti bush crap. Now, go watch and hour of "Lifetime" and see how many tampon and douche commercials there are in an hour, then do the same thing for an hour on ESPN and compare the difference. The other major thing to remember, is even if you think you matter, you dont. Its the machine controling things, and it wont change.
Any rate, please clear up, what you mean by "things" and please explain how we are losing the "war", and what "war is it, exactly..BTW thank you for forgiving us, as "what we did in the past is irrelevant"....
All these people want is the due recognition of the crimes committed against them and what they are owed legally by treaty. Is that too much to ask? Aparently it is to some people....
There are plenty of indians out there taking FULL advantages of ALL the programs out there (what was it? 712,000?). The ones who dont have no one other than themselves to blame. For such a small group of people, I would think they would look out for each other and help them. I mean, 712,000 pages. Thats alot. They've had their recognition. They have their benefits. Its up to them.
"God helps them, who help themselves"....
