Brendan MacRae wrote: > --- William Robb <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: "Paul Stenquist" Subject: Re: PESO - American >> Fence >> >> >>> But the New York Times is probably the most >> liberal daily newspaper in >>> the U.S. They always take the side of the >> oppressed minority if they >>> can. On the other hand, they don't ignore >> inconvenient facts. >>> Considering the source I wouldn't call this >> "history rewritten by the >>> victors." The article about the violent cultures >> of the native >>> Americans appeared in the science section. In >> truth, it's history >>> rewritten by archaeologists. >> My father was a student of local history. His take >> on pre-European life in >> North America pretty much jives with what you are >> saying. His take on >> post-European life from the Aboriginal point of view >> was that the vilence >> shifted from internal to external and they really >> weren't any better off for >> the European invasion. >> >> William Robb >> > > While slavery, copious killing, rape and virtually > every other form of barbarism was prevelant among the > tribes of North America, it was still the intrusion of > Europeans which caused their near total extinction. To > suggest that they themselves were at times brutual > toward one another is no defense for their wholesale > slaughter at the hands of whites. > > -Brendan
The primary reason for the massive population drop wasn't wholesale slaughter. It was the unthinking introduction of several virulent and deadly diseases to a population with essentially no resistances to them. And frankly there was no way the Europeans would have had any inkling of how dangerous that was. This isn't to say that the survivors weren't treated extremely badly. But the population crash wasn't caused by wholesale slaughter. -Adam -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
