History that your teachers never taught you.

Hi all, just wanted to post some history regarding Native Americans; things you probably never heard. All of this information came out of a book I discovered called: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen. Simon & Schuster, 1995. The book is very informative and if you are interested in the truth regarding history I suggest you pick it up sometime. Just a few points that most people don't know about:

What the Pilgrims found were settled farms, with the crops already planted and growing, deserted by Indians fleeing the plague. The Pilgrims "found it easy to infer that God was on their side. John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, called the plague "Miraculous"" (81).

The plague that they are discussing is in fact the reason why European settlers found it so easy to take over Native Americans land. How bad was it? Well to give you an idea it wiped out around 90 percent of the Native population. It wasn't white settlers with their impressive technology that determined the Natives outcome, as they were only dealing with the other 10 percent the plague had left behind.

As you can see Native Americans aren't the primitive culture that most believe. How advanced where they actually?

"Indeed, Native American ideas may be partly responsible for our democratic institutions. We have seen how Native ideas of liberty, fraternity, and equality found their way to Europe to influence social philosophers such as Thomas More, Locke, Montaigne, Montesquieu, and Rousseau... Through 150 years of colonial contact, the Iroquois League stood before the colonies as an object lesson in how to govern a large domain democratically" (111).

Wow, so they had a great influence upon our democratic society? Not the primitive society you were led to believe, no?

Overall I wanted to give you a small amount of the lies you have been told about history. Cracked.com which is actually considered a comedy site did a great job of giving you small examples, shown here www.cracked.com...

Do not believe everything they tell you for propaganda knows no bounds.

Good day to all.

All of that and more was covered in my history classes. Consider the fact that Native Americans thought they were "getting over on the white man" when they signed treaties giving the Americans possession of the land. Native Americans did not believe that you could own the land and were completely shocked when whites moved in and fenced land off to prevent others from trespassing. So, the treachery went both ways; the whites were just "better at it".

reply to post by DarthMuerte


What I find amazing is that the Native Americans kicked the *blank* out of the Vikings. The vikings! If the plague wouldn't have occurred I believe Europeans would have found it much harder to take their land....

To give all an update, here is a site that has some excerpts from the book:

Enjoy. www.criticalthink.info...

Was this plague a natural phenomena occurring in the Americas, or was it some sort of transfer of European germs (non-deadly to Europeans) onto the Native Americans (no previous immunity) through contact?

If the plague hadn't devastated them so thoroughly the Europeans most definitely would have been unsuccessful at colonialism, I think. So long as they didn't start stabbing each other in the back (how the conquistadors won against the Aztecs.) there would have been too many of them and with the technology of the day it would be logistically impossible for them to get more than a foothold. Unfortunately human nature would have probably gotten the better of them and they would start using the Europeans to destroy their rivals and then be surprised when they are next in line.

reply to post by Sahabi


The plague came from Europe; I think the Spanish brought it first in their expeditions, but I am not certain

Originally posted by Sahabi
Was this plague a natural phenomena occurring in the Americas, or was it some sort of transfer of European germs (non-deadly to Europeans) onto the Native Americans (no previous immunity) through contact?

Within just a few generations, the continents of the Americas were virtually emptied of their native inhabitants – some academics estimate that approximately 20 million people may have died in the years following the European invasion – up to 95% of the population of the Americas. No medieval force, no matter how bloodthirsty, could have achieved such enormous levels of genocide. Instead, Europeans were aided by a deadly secret weapon they weren't even aware they were carrying: Smallpox.

The old immunity that the Europeans had that the Natives did not.

Source:www.pbs.org...

Originally posted by Mkoll
If the plague hadn't devastated them so thoroughly the Europeans most definitely would have been unsuccessful at colonialism, I think. So long as they didn't start stabbing each other in the back (how the conquistadors won against the Aztecs.) there would have been too many of them and with the technology of the day it would be logistically impossible for them to get more than a foothold. Unfortunately human nature would have probably gotten the better of them and they would start using the Europeans to destroy their rivals and then be surprised when they are next in line.

edit on 19-5-2012 by Mkoll because: (no reason given)

Did Europeans "civilize" the Americas? Actually, anthropologists tell us that "hunters and gatherers were relatively peaceful, compared to agriculturalists, and that modern societies were more warlike still. Thus violence increases with civilization" (101-2).

According to the text warring was not common between them, although it did happen. So just like the plague Europeans brought along with them reasons to go to war.

reply to post by Mkoll


I've always heard about the European influenza and smallpox viruses causing major epidemics amongst the Native Americans, but this is the first I've heard of a general plague.

Originally posted by Sahabi
reply to post by Mkoll

 

I've always heard about the European influenza and smallpox viruses causing major epidemics amongst the Native Americans, but this is the first I've heard of a general plague.

Historians estimate that before the plague, America's population was anywhere between 20 and 100 million (Europe's at the time was 70 million). The plague would eventually sweep West, killing at least 90 percent of the native population. For comparison's sake, the Black Plague killed off between 30 and 60 percent of Europe's population. Read more: 6 Ridiculous Lies You Believe About the Founding of America | Cracked.com www.cracked.com...

- www.cracked.com...

It wiped them out.

reply to post by Covertblack


That may be so, but under the scenario that north america didn't get depopulated by accidental bio-warfare Europeans most likely would have started trading with them, eventually selling them firearms and other technologies which could have had a corrupting influence. The local cultures would have been changed to a degree by contact with Europeans and what was once true does not always remain true.

Wow that was a very interesting read. I'll have to surf cracked.com more often.

History propaganda runs both ways. They began working on me with all the white guilt stuff at about 3rd/4th grade. Books like this (and I have read that one too) follow an ideology of "correcting" past slant and propaganda with counter propaganda. Your book is not it is all it's cracked up to be.
I prefer real history to propaganda ridden stuff they push in pop culture.
Someone should write a book called "Lies some white guilt addict author wrote about what my teachers allegedly taught me."
Do your own research. Primary source material is more available than ever before via the internet.
History is nothing what people think it is.
For example, whenever a factual and balanced account of the Civil War is written, people go into a fit of rage, furious over the "pro-Confederate slant". It is a product of propaganda thrust upon education since the 70s (and the creation of the Dept of Education, coincidentally or not).
Deny Ignorance.

Originally posted by Mkoll
reply to post by Covertblack

 

That may be so, but under the scenario that north america didn't get depopulated by accidental bio-warfare Europeans most likely would have started trading with them, eventually selling them firearms and other technologies which could have had a corrupting influence. The local cultures would have been changed to a degree by contact with Europeans and what was once true does not always remain true.

Oh I agree. Do you think they would have been so shorthanded though? What I mean is they would have had more bargaining chips to begin with. Which would have equaled better results.

Originally posted by pierregustavetoutant
History propaganda runs both ways. They began working on me with all the white guilt stuff at about 3rd/4th grade. Books like this (and I have read that one too) follow an ideology of "correcting" past slant and propaganda with counter propaganda. Your book is not it is all it's cracked up to be.
I prefer real history to propaganda ridden stuff they push in pop culture.
Someone should write a book called "Lies some white guilt addict author wrote about what my teachers allegedly taught me."
Do your own research. Primary source material is more available than ever before via the internet.
History is nothing what people think it is.
For example, whenever a factual and balanced account of the Civil War is written, people go into a fit of rage, furious over the "pro-Confederate slant". It is a product of propaganda thrust upon education since the 70s (and the creation of the Dept of Education, coincidentally or not).
Deny Ignorance.


Not saying that is the only truth, but it is a different view point than I am sure you have been given. Where is the white guilt coming it? By giving a culture more credit than it does today?

edit on 19-5-2012 by Covertblack because: (no reason given)

reply to post by pierregustavetoutant


The funny thing is that I have European and Native American in me. So obviously I am not trying to sway you either way. I just want people to realize they weren't the stone throwing, neanderthal society, they were taught.

Originally posted by Covertblack
reply to post by pierregustavetoutant

 

The funny thing is that I have European and Native American in me. So obviously I am not trying to sway you either way. I just want people to realize they weren't the stone throwing, neanderthal society, they were taught.

I agree with you a million percent on that point. Sorry. After getting into primary source material, I get quick to answer perceived political correctness.
But, yes. American Indian culture is far more interesting and advanced and diverse than most people are aware of.
People put them all int he same basket, but to throw Apache, Cherokee, Shumash, Choctaw, Creek, Sioux, all in the same basket, one is doing a disservice to completely different cultures.

Originally posted by pierregustavetoutant

Originally posted by Covertblack
reply to post by pierregustavetoutant

 

The funny thing is that I have European and Native American in me. So obviously I am not trying to sway you either way. I just want people to realize they weren't the stone throwing, neanderthal society, they were taught.

I agree with you a million percent on that point. Sorry. After getting into primary source material, I get quick to answer perceived political correctness.
But, yes. American Indian culture is far more interesting and advanced and diverse than most people are aware of.
People put them all int he same basket, but to throw Apache, Cherokee, Shumash, Choctaw, Creek, Sioux, all in the same basket, one is doing a disservice to completely different cultures.

edit on 19-5-2012 by pierregustavetoutant because: (no reason given)

Agreed. I hope people take this chance to research and discover all the different aspects of each Nation.

The Native American plague is most likely small pox.

en.wikipedia.org...

The most notable disease brought by Europeans was the destructive smallpox disease. Smallpox was lethal to many Native Americans, bringing sweeping epidemics and affecting the same tribes repeatedly. Within 1837 to 1870, “at least four different epidemics struck the Plains tribes.” Numerous other diseases were brought to Native American tribes, including “measles, scarlet fever, typhoid, typhus, influenza, whooping cough, tuberculosis, cholera, diphtheria, chicken pox, and venereal diseases