"Native people cheer and applaud numbers killed at the Sand Creek Massacre"

[Sequoia]

(From an email)


April 30, 2007 -- CENTENNIAL, CO -- Loud applause and cheers erupted during the Sand Creek Massacre Site Dedication Ceremony on April 28, 2007. They were for the 200 to 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho people massacred there on November 29, 1864. A Northern Cheyenne tribal speaker mention of the total massacred at Sand Creek, anywhere from 150 to 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho babies, children, persons with disabilities, elders and women, on November 29, 2007 outnumbered the thirty-two victims massacred at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia on April 16, 200 ignited the eruption.

Subsequent to the Virgina Tech Massacre, Lakota Sioux tribe member, Joan Redfern, said in a "Gilroy Dispatch" article by Kat Teraji, "To say the Virginia shooting is the worst in all of U. S. history is to pour salt on old wounds-it means erasing and forgetting all of our ancestors who were killed in the past," Redfern said.

"The use of hyperbole and lack of historical perspective seems all too ubiquitous in much of the current mainstream media...My intention is not to downplay the horror of what has happened ...at Virginia Tech in any way. But we have a 500-year history of mass shootings on American soil, and let's not forget it."

To this writer, who was at the Sand Creek Massacre Dedication Ceremony, nausea nibbled at me as I heard the cheers and applause. Former Colorado governor Roy Romer, present Colorado governor Bill Ritter, Colorado Lt. Governor Barbara O'Brien, U. S. Rep Marilyn Musgrave, Kansas U. S. Senator Sam Brownback, Department of the Interior, National Park Service Director, Mary Bomar, former Colorado U. S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, and several others quietly observed this outpouring of emotion.


I wondered, "To where have we evolved as human beings and as Americans?"

http://www.donvasicek.com

[laylah]

1. Such an important thread but

watch it drop like a rock! K&R

Jenn

[rpannier]

4. You're probably correct

If the OP had added a story about whether or not Al Gore might be considering the possibility of speaking to someone who is mildly interested in him running for president at some future date in the next 100 years, then it would probably get more notice.

[malaise]

7. Funny how MSM didn't even mention this

Funny but no surprise.

[bluescribbler]

50. Doing my part

54th rec and a kick to keep it alive.

[rpannier]

2. Reccomended

I think it's important enough to try to get people's attention.

[noiretextatique]

3. tulsa, 1921

Beulah Smith and Kenny Booker, two elderly Oklahomans, lived through one of the worst race riots in U.S. history, a rarely mentioned 1921 Tulsa blood bath that officially took dozens of African-American lives, but more likely claimed hundreds. Perhaps even thousands.
The official death toll was below 100, most of them black, but there was always doubt about the actual number. Experts now estimate that at least 300 people, and perhaps as many as 3,000, died.

http://www.cnn.com/US/9908/03/tulsa.riots.probe/index.html

"But we have a 500-year history of mass shootings on American soil, and let's not forget it."

[IndyOp]

9. Thank you for bringing up Tulsa - I learned about the massacre

only within the last few years here at DU. My mother grew up in Broken Arrow, outside Tulsa, and I vaguely remember the family talking the "riots" -- meaning blacks had rioted causing all kinds of trouble. The reality - that whites invaded the black neighborhoods after a white woman accused a black man of not showing her sufficient respect - is all too believable based on what I know of Oklahoma.

:-(

[Selatius]

13. That sounds like how the Rosewood Massacre started.

Except with Rosewood a white woman accused a black man of raping her, touching off the race riot that eventually led to the destruction of the black town. Later, it turned out the woman had been beaten, not raped, by a white man.

[IndyOp]

20. Women, suffering discrimination,

take out their own rage and direct the rage of the males toward another discriminated against population - blacks. What goes around comes around and around and around...

:(

[SemperEadem]

51. google "East St. Louis riot 1917'

This started because of a company attempting to break a strike.


http://www.exodusnews.com/HISTORY/History010.htm

Mr. Hurd saw African American women begging for mercy and pleading that they had harmed no one, set upon by white women of the baser sort, who laughed and answered the cource sallies of men as they beat the women faces and breasts with fists, stones and sticks. "Get a n____r," was the slogan, and it was varied by the recurrent cry, "Get another." It was nothing so much as the holiday crowd, with thumbs turned down, in the Roman Coliseum, except that here the shouters were their own gladiators, and their own wild beasts.

The sheds in the rear of African American houses, which were themselves in the rear of the main buildings on Fourth Street, had been ignited to drive out the African American occupants of the houses. And the slayers were waiting for them to come out. It was stay in and be roasted, or come out and be slaughtered. A moment before Mr. Hurd arrived, one African American had taken the desperate chance of coming out and the rattle of revolver shots, which Mr. Hurd heard as he approached the corner, was followed by the cry, "they've got him," and they had. He laid on the pavement, a bullet wound in his head and his skull bare in two places. At every movement of pain which showed that life still remained, there came a terrific kick in the jaw or the nose, or a crashing stone, from some of the men who stood over him.

The mob then turned to see a lynching. An African American who had his head laid open by a great stone-cut had been dragged to the mouth of the alley on Fourth Street and a small rope was being tied about his neck. It broke when it was pulled over a projecting cable, letting the African American fall. A stouter rope was secured. Right there Mr. Hurd his most sickening sight of the evening. To put the rope around the African American's neck, one of the lynch men stuck his fingers inside the gaping scalp and lifted the African American's head by it. "Get hold and pull for East St. Louis," called a man with a black coat and a new straw hat on as he seized the other end of the rope, and lifted the body seven feet from the ground, and left it hanging there.

The following stories were told to Mrs. Ida B. Wells-Barnett after she met with Illinois Governor Lowden on July 9,1917. He told her to return to St. Louis to get him the names of people who would testify. John Avant said, he worked at the C.B.&Q.. He was with about twenty-five other African Americans who got off of work on Tuesday mourning. They were sitting or standing around the restaurant where they usually ate, when six soldiers and four or five policemen came upon them suddenly and shot into the crowd, wounding six. One of the number has since died.

of the half dozen men standing around, told Mrs. Well-Barnett that he saw a woman and two children killed, also her husband. That they were going across the bridge and the mob seized the baby out of her arms and threw it into the river. Frank Brown said, he saw a man hit an African American with a piece of iron and shoot him four times in the stomach.

[slampoet]

30. I always was shocked about this detail of the Tulsa Massacre.....

"Ruth Avery, who was 7 at the time, gives an account matched by others who told of bombs dropped from small airplanes passing overhead. The explosive devices may have been dynamite or Molotov cocktails -- gasoline-filled bottles set afire and thrown as grenades."


Sound like any terrorists we know?

[noiretextatique]

40. yep...terrorism is no stranger to america

it's "tradition," and this thread demostrates.

[lynnertic]

34. that's right.

I think people were cheering for the recognition, finally. Not for the fact that the massacre happened.

[JNelson6563]

5. K&R To the Greatest Page with you!

:kick:

[MnFats]

6. “I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God’s hea

In November of 1864, Colonel John Chivington and his troops went on the march. They passed through Fort Lyon, where Chivington picked up reinforcements as well as two cannons. Having been at the fort he surely had been informed that the Indian Village on Sand Creek was under military protection.

On November 29, just as the sun was coming up, Chivington, with his column of seven to nine hundred men, attacked Black Kettle's Sand Creek camp where some five hundred Indians lay sleeping.

Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle



When Chivington had first planned this attack some of his junior officers had protested, reminding him that the Cheyennes were under an assurance of safety, which further proves he had knowledge of the situation with Black Kettle. According to Evan S. Connell in his book Son of the Morning Star Chivington violently threatened these men. He shook a fist at Lt. Joseph Cramer, and shouted:

“I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honorable to use any means under God’s heaven to kill Indians!”

J.M. Coombs reported that Chivington also said:

“Scalps are what we are after . . . . I long to be wading in gore!”

Whether the above quotes are actual, the proof of Chivington’s intent lies in the results of his proven actions.

Back in 1861 at the treaty of Fort Wise, the Commissioner of Indian Affairs had given Black Kettle an American flag. This Peace Chief had been told to fly it above his lodge and all would be safe. As Chivington’s troops swept towards Black Kettle’s camp the chief, according to trader George Bent, held the flag up where it waved atop a long pole and tried to keep his people calm. When White Antelope frantically ran toward the soldiers, waving his arms, the soldiers shot him down. The Cheyennes fled, seeking cover wherever they could.

The Cheyenne had little chance as the cavalrymen cut them down. For several hours this nearly one-sided battle raged. The soldiers roamed through the village and the surrounding country, slaughtering and destroying all they encountered. They had their orders. No prisoners were to be taken. Men, women, children, and infants were killed. The bodies of these people were scalped and mutilated.

When the Cheyenne had first encountered Chivington’s troops at sunrise, it was the last sunrise some two hundred Cheyenne would ever see. Of the slaughtered people that were strewn over the valley of Sand Creek, about two-thirds were women and children.

[RC]

11. As a human being, I feel sick at reading this.

This was their land, their lives we stole.

[Greyhound]

35. Wrong place

[XOKCowboy]

39. Black Kettle

What compounds the irony is that Black Kettle had been one of the most cooperative of the Cheyenne chiefs. He recognized that his people were hopelessly outnumbered by the incoming white settlers and risked being ostracized by his own people for his cooperation. Thanks to that cooperation he was promised full protection of the US military.

It's a sad, horrible story.

[Terri S]

8. K & R !!

To where have we evolved, indeed !!

[MrPrax]

10. Sad reading...

Very sad...

Duncan Kerr, the scout, found the body of One Eye lying near the camp. "Some of the boys had scalped him, " Kerr wrote, "but they either did not understand how to take a scalp, or their knives were very dull, for they had commenced to take the scalp off at the top of the head, and torn a strip down to the middle of the neck."

K&R'ed

...to make as many people as possible, sad...

Humanity is the washerwoman of society that wrings out its dirty laundry in tears.

Karl Kraus,
Half-Truths and One-and-a-Half Truths: Selected Aphorisms (trans.)

[Lerkfish]

12. I'm glad history is being upheld, but I'm a little perplexed at cheering a horrible event

I mean, I understand, but I would have felt a little weird at the time.

[nebenaube]

15. they weren't cheering the event, just the recognition that it happened n/t

[Lerkfish]

17. I know, I'm just pointing out the bizarre sadness of it all.

I"m probably not explaining myself well.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. The persecution of the First People went on into the 20th Century

Many don't know that it was ILLEGAL to practice Lakota Ceremony until the 1970s. I know full blooded Choctaws who were punished in school for speaking their native tongue, and wanting to learn the ways of their tribe. I know of Cherokees in the 1940s and 50s who left the reservations, rented farmland, and were farming just like anyone else--who were dragged back to the rez by the authorities. The "Manifest Destiny" of this nation had a very dark side--to obliterate people and their culture.

[Karenina]

16. Just like they're doing in Iraq.

Same shit. Different day.

[MnFats]

22. i went to college with a couple guys who got shipped off to 'Indian school'

they were beaten for speaking the Apache language. so they did it more, just to fuck with the school staff and prove they could take anything the bastards laid on them. these were tough SOBs.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

23. My brother shared a foxhole with an Apache

when he was in Viet Nam. He had great respect for his courage and daring.

[XOKCowboy]

29. My grandmother was taken from her family and sent to a Catholic Mission

in Kansas when she was a small girl (we think she was as young as 6 yrs old). Her parents were Cherokee and she was born in NE Oklahoma in '07. She was kept at the mission until she was 16, not allowed to speak her parents language, baptized and her parents were dead when she "graduated" and was sent back to Oklahoma.

This was all done for her own good by our benevolent government of course.

[ismnotwasm]

18. Thanks for posting this

When I first read about the Sand Creek massacre, I must of been 12 or 13. Maybe younger. It changed my world view forever. It's one of the reasons I have the sig line I do.

K&R, although there's enough for the front page.

[Madspirit]

19. K&R...n/t

[Zhade]

21. KandR for my fellow native peoples.

NT!

[catmandu57]

24. It's always struck me how much chivington and gingrich

look alike, in more ways than one they're both meaner than snakes and bullies rotten to the core.

[Enthusiast]

32. I thought the same!

They must be very similar. I'm sure Gingrich still subscribes to the theory of manifest desitiny, only now, the disenfranchised American people are the new Indians.

[Jcrowley]

25. Kick and Rec n/t

[DKRC]

26. K&R!

I read about this massacre, and many others, back in my early teens also. Knowing the history of our country from sources other than Hollywood Westerns makes all the difference in the world in my views as an adult.

[byronius]

27. Colonel John Chivington -- and the animal in all of us.

MnFats post above describing Chivington's statements made me remember how most of my early authority figures viewed minorities, and especially Indians.

I was raised by white-trash Texans. Meaning: Mexicans were evil, human-skinning/baby-killing rapists. Blacks were lazy rapists. Indians -- even worse. Evil human-skinning/baby-killing rapists that only scalped helpless people. Alive. Ever seen any of those old westerns with the poor bluecoat strapped to the wagon wheel, screaming every time the fire went by? Times ten. Those movies were liberal propaganda to my Texanian forebears.

Thankfully, I was rescued by a bunch of hippies. From books. (note icon for detail) And also, I tend to think, by the words of the Founding Fathers. Actions and intent aside, they said the coolest shit ever. Beyond their puny human selves. 'Pursuit of Happiness'? WHAT? I mean, they just rocked with that stuff. 'All Men Are Created Equal'. That is the BOMB.

Onward, thinking with the broad brush -- the tactic of de-humanization in conflict is standard behavior for the species, and I think that's what I found suddenly interesting about the quotes from Chivington. What horrifying demons lurked in this man's mind? What had he heard? What did all the men he commanded think? If I had thought those things, as a modern child, what in the hell did THEY think?

If history is any judge, they probably thought of the Indians as shaggy, beast-like, evil human-skinning/baby-killing rapists that only scalped helpless people. There was probably a strong sexual component to it. I wouldn't be surprised if the visual image they carried was similar to the Nazi images of Jews, or the Klan images of blacks.

How else could one hunt down and slaughter women and children?

Don't forget the 'In The Name Of God' part. Religious fervor expressed as agression is also standard behavior.


Bringing me to my point: How does the average American Freeper view us?

[Forrest Greene]

28. "There was probably a strong sexual component to it."

If I remember correctly, some of the perpetrators of the Sand Creek Massacre were said to have sliced off the sexual organs of female victims, stretched them, dried them, & used them as hatbands.

[JTG of the PRB]

31. Hmm...

This is indeed an interesting story, and I'm finding the reaction of people here to be just as interesting. I don't believe the crowd was cheering for the fact that more people were killed at the Sand Creek massacre than were killed at Virginia Tech. Nor do I believe they were cheering simply for the fact that this massacre occurred.

Instead, I think they were cheering for the fact that somebody actually remembered what happened in 1864. In this country, we (as a collective consciousness, not as individuals) have an atrocious memory of our own history. They say that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, and I believe that 100%.

The loss of human life is tragic, whether is it 33 students or nearly of 500 Cheyenne and Arapaho. If I were at that rally, I might have clapped too. Not because the loss of life was so atrocious, or because one tragedy was more tragic than another tragedy. I would applaud because there are still some people in the world who remember our past, and they will be the ones who can try and help us from repeating it.

[tkmorris]

33. Kicked, recommended

Shed a tear.

[Greyhound]

36. One side's "patriot" is another's terrorist. We would do well to acknowledge and

remember this. As with most nations, the history of the Untied States is written in blood and sealed in suffering.
:kick: & R

[troubleinwinter]

37. Mountain Meadows Massacre

I returned two days ago from a trip to study the history of Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah in 1857.

Mormons attacked a wagon train traveling from Arkansas to California and massacred 120 men, women and children.

White men slaughtered white families, but tried to frame the Shivwits Paiutes for the crimes... the Mormons were dressed and painted as Paiutes during a five-day siege on the travelers. The whites, led by John D. Lee, then approached the train under a white flag and claimed they'd made a deal with the Indians and would see the families out safely marching on foot if they'd lay down arms and abandon their goods. The Mormons then killed every man, woman and child (over age 6) in cold blood. The small children were given/sold to Mormons (survivors told stories of seeing Mormons wearing their dead parents' clothes and jewelry).

It is unknown for absolute sure if Brigham Young personally ordered the massacre rather than other church leaders, but he orchestrated the coverup and promoted the lie of it being a Paiute attack for decades. Today, historians think the Paiutes were not involved at all as perpetrators, but as witnesses and beneficiaries of some of the booty (livestock, supplies, clothing and goods).

Two years later, the Army arrived to investigate and they gathered up the bones and skulls strewn about for burial, built a rock cairn to mark the mass grave, and returned the stolen orphans to their families in Arkansas. Mormons disassembled and scattered the cairn stones every time the memorial was rebuilt until 1999, when the church finally paid for building and maintaining a permanent memorial.

Only one Mormon was charged (some 18 years later) in the crime: John D. Lee. He was executed. His first trial had a hung jury, but Brigham Young then gave evidence to the gov't. to prove Lee's guilt, on condition that the church's role in the crimes would not be exposed.

I went to see John D. Lee's grave. I was curious to see what the current local attitude toward him is. His grave is covered in flowers. He is revered.

In this case, the Indians were not the ones massacred, but they were deliberately framed to take blame for murderous crimes perpetrated in cold blood upon 120 innocent people.

[Sequoia]

38. Yes, this is one those covered up stories.

PBS had a show about the Morman's last night. They were not the type to turn the other cheek. I got sleepy and couldn't finish watching it. It's creepy that you saw flowers on John D. Lee's grave though.

[daveskilt]

47. Other Mormon Massacres - and Brigham Young's blame

Mormons had been massacred at Haun's Mill, Nauvoo, and were hunted in Misouri after the extermination order.

The mountain meadows massacre is an appalling act. It should be taken in the larger context of the Utah War. It was a war crime. An atrocity for which John Lee should have been, and was, executed. Lee's mistake was attacking the fantcher party in the first place - after that there was an inevitability to the horrific events that followed. Knowing his error after they their surrender, he was left with the choice that if he let them go they would likely return from california with an army at the same time as the federal army (that Lee had thought the fantcher party was a part of) was arriving from the East to kill the mormons. Of course if he really believed he was defeneding gods chosen people - you do the right thing and let them go. Not massacre them after surrender.

The complicity or lack thereof of Brigham young is a hugely interesting subject. His runner arrived too late with word not to attack. BUT why was Brigham inexplicably absent from Salt Lake and so much further North that the messages back and forth from Lee took so long to get there? This seems odd considering the anticipated arrival of Buchanan's army with orders to eliminate the mormons. The highly inflammatory (to the fed's) monument laws seemed designed to incite conflict with the US (since Deseret was not part of the US at that time). Brighams's blame may lie in his inciting a confrontation and then his slow response to stop confrontation with a group of settlers from Arkansas so soon after Parley Pratt's murder in Arkansas. Almost a perfect storm to create a situation where Lee felt compelled to act without orders to the contrary and the dominoes fell leading to the massacre.

Brigham Young may not have intended the massacre, but he had to have seen the conditions that made such an event likely and then was absent as a leader and allowed it to occur.

I have never seen flowers on Lee's grave. Most mormons are totally unaware of this shameful event from their past. If they are aware it usually is accompanied by a lack of awareness of the magnitude (120 people killed) or with an apologists view that it was in some way justified.

There is a perverted logic of self preservation to Lee's decision when viewed in a wider context, but no justification for killing 120 civilians.

Also a lot of misinformation is out there - mormon's who think this is just anti-mormon propoganda and never happened. There is also some misinformation such as the "deal" that Brigham Young supposedly made with the fed's - when in fact Lee was convicted by a territorial court under Brigham Young's jurisdiction. Or the blame the piaute myth - the Piautes participated in the 5 day seige (not the massacre) and the mormons dressed as piaute during the seige but were openly a white militia after the surrender. The biggest mystery is what happened on the Sunday night that sparked the conflict? some incident is refered to in mutiple journals on both sides but no explanation of what occurred survives.

One thing is known - scared mormons attacked what they saw as a threat at a time when they were being attacked and killed routinely - those people surrendered and the mormons while marching them out of the territory killed 120 unarmed people in cold blood.

[troubleinwinter]

53. "I have never seen flowers on Lee's grave."

I took this picture of my father photographing Lee's grave on Saturday. Last weekend. Lee's is the one with the floral bouquets.

BTW, it's 'Fancher'.

[Sequoia]

58. Gasp! Should be briars and thorns.

[troubleinwinter]

62. That's what was interesting to me.

I haven't any particular opinion regarding flower bouquets or briars & thorns. I was curious how the modern locals viewed him. He was the only man (out of about 40 murderers) ever held to account, tried and executed for the massacre of 120 men, women and children. I did not know if he was regarded as an embarrassment, a shame, or a hero by locals today.

The church restored his 'blessings' in 1961, so he is now able to be a god(along with whatever those benefits are supposed to be).

The cultural story is interesting to see how it has been viewed, denied, slanted, nuanced, weighted, admitted, rejected, embraced, etc. over the passing years. This one slim slice of human history has many facets beyond the original occurance... How does a people deal with or face a piece of shameful history?' Deny? Justify? Ignore? Admit? Scapegoat? Acknowledge? Make amends? Seek and embrace honest answers?

It isn't really a Mormon story, it's a story of humans and how a group deals with such horrific issues. In 1999, the church finally officially acknowledged historical truth. It took only 142 years. I must say that Mormons are excellent preservationists of a great deal of western American history, and now that they are free to acknowledge the issue, some (not all) of the best resources for the history of the events are through Mormons. There are still some vehement deniers, too.

Whether flowers or thorns are on Lee's grave doesn't matter to me much one way or another. I am curious about what goes through the minds of people who place them there.

I understand the difficult and complicated history and politics of the time and place. I don't regard Lee nor any of the rest of the perpetrators as "evil". That is why the issue is important to look at: 'How can so many good, honorable, upstanding, religious men slaughter innocent men, women and children because they were told to do it as a result of scary stories told by their leadership? How could the women of the community participate in the cover up and denial?'

It happened in Germany. It happened in Utah. The posts in this thread speak of many times it has happened. WE MUST acknowledge that these things are possible with a "leader" who "speaks to God" and some "good citizens" listen to him.

[daveskilt]

60. that is crazy. I've only been down there a few times but ...

that is a first. Having said that there are some seriously wacky folks in that part of the world.

[EVDebs]

41. Let's not forget the Ludlow Massacre also in Colorado.....

""The Ludlow massacre was the death of 17 people during an attack by the Colorado National Guard on a tent colony of 1,200 striking coal miners and their families at Ludlow, Colorado in the USA on April 20, 1914. These deaths occurred after a day-long fight between strikers and the Guard. Two women, twelve children, six miners and union officials, and one National Guardsman were killed. In response the miners armed themselves and attacked dozens of mines, destroying property and engaging in several skirmishes with the Colorado National Guard.""

Ludlow Massacre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre

April 20, 1914

[geardaddy]

42. Or Wounded Knee

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Massacre

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

55. Or the Chinese massacre of 1871

An angry mob of about 500 Caucasians went into Los Angeles' Chinatown and went on a rampage, killing about 23 Chinese men. At least 17 were strung up and hung by the neck on the public street. The anger apparently had been building because of the poor economy following the Civil War and that Caucasian laborers accused the Chinese of taking away jobs.

[frogcycle]

43. Trail of Tears

not a single massacre, but still...
from Wikipedia:

The number of people who died as a result of the Trail of Tears has been variously estimated. American doctor and missionary Elizur Butler, who made the journey with one party, estimated 2,000 deaths in the camps and 2,000 on the trail; his total of 4,000 deaths remains the most cited figure. A scholarly demographic study in 1973 estimated 2,000 total deaths; another, in 1984, concluded that a total of 8,000 people died.<3>


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears

[yellerpup]

44. So much true American history has never been told.

From 30 million native souls when Columbus stumbled upon our Eden to 30,000 survivors of the "Indian Wars" in the late 19th century. Oklahoma was supposed to be the US equivalent of Soweto in South Africa; the gov't advertised for freed slaves to settle in Indian Territory...then, someone whispered "free land" in Europe, then someone discovered oil on tribal lands... Nothing has changed. K&R! :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Danger Mouse]

45. We paid the price for America with the blood of its native people and African slaves...

and we act somehow as if we earned it.
Each of these massacres and violations of human decency are a stain on ALL of us that will never come clean.
Anyone ever see the movie 'Little Big Man'? The scene where Custer's men are butchering a native camp is sickening and haunting...
This is the filthy underbelly of our glorious American history, which is not taught in schools, and which most Americans would sooner forget, if they even know about it.
Let not one person EVER forget our many attrocities. Our children must know, and must remember.
Our only hope as a country is that we can teach them of the horrors we have wrought, in the past and in the present, so that we don't see more of the same in the future.
Our one hope...

[daveskilt]

48. One surviving account about columbus

A franciscan monk records witnessing columbus "testing" the sharpness of his blade on one of the natives as if the human being was a block of wood.

[Danger Mouse]

52. Oh, Columbus was a complete dick. Horribly mistreated the natives.

And yet we celebrate him every year.
Ah, America...

[Manifestor_of_Light]

56. "Little Big Man" was quite controversial because it showed massacres.

And it portrayed Custer as a complete twit. First movie that I know of that told the truth about mowing down the Native Americans.

I remember the massacre scene vividly.

However, there was also some memorable comic relief.

[Sequoia]

59. About Little Big Man and then a book about American Holocaust

In true life it was Little Big Man who stuck the knife in Crazy Horse that killed him.

Years ago I came across a detailed and horrifying book:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/51FY8R7RC7L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-dp-500-arrow,TopRight,45,-64_OU01_AA240_SH20_.jpg


Here's a reader's review:

If Only It Wasn't So Black and White, November 8, 2005
Reviewer: J Taylor

American Holocaust was published in 1992 in occasion of the 500 year anniversary of Columbus' voyage to the Americas. In the midst of much celebratory scholarship praising the greatness of Euro-American history and culture, Stannard wrote a book that tells history from a very different side. It present a vivid account of the European conquest of the Americas and focuses attention on how the often celebrated conquest resulted in nothing less than a holocaust for the Indigenous peoples of the America.

The first two-thirds of the book consist in a very graphic reconstruction of HOW the colonization of the Americas took place. Stannard pulls no punches and delivers us all the horror and brutality of the European invasion in no uncertain terms. The overall effect is rather depressing, but at the same time enlightening. Reading it before a hot date, though, is not suggested since you will probably be in a bad mood for hours. The second half of the book switches gears and focuses on WHY the colonization of the Americas took place the way it did. Showing he is not afraid of controversy, in a chapter entitled "Sex, Race, and Holy War" Stannard draws a direct connection between Christianity and the genocide of Indian peoples. Stannard himself admits that this is not the only explanation for the brutality of Euro-American conquest, but he suggests religion was an important part of it, and I tend to agree with him.
Overall, the book is nothing short of amazing. Unlike most boring historical analysis, this is one that--love it or hate it--is impossible to remain indifferent to. It is very captivating and beautifully written.

<snip>

amazon.com

[Judi Lynn]

46. Too bad the real history has always been swept under the carpet, and only available

to those who deliberately looked for it.

As Lynne Cheney entered our line of vision in 2000, she arrived bitching that the history books all needed to be rearranged so people would see how much good had been done by the founding father people.

Wrote her own dandy version to sell to school kids. God help them.

Thank you for this thread.

[onethatcares]

49. fuck lynne cheney and her version of history

the bile rises in my throat to utter her surname.

[JHB]

61. Funny, that...

I remember when people pointed to how the Roooskies erased the bad stuff from their history, and we were better because we at least owned up to the bad stuff and tried to learn from it. (Not that they ever did)...

Just another chapter in the Republican Sovietization of America

[hankthecrank]

54. Kicked too late to recommend n/t

[ProudDad]

57. Kick

Those who don't remember history are condemned to repeat it.