In our high school history classes, we have all undoubtedly spent a lot of time learning about World War One and World War Two, two wars that America came in at the last second and 'saved' the victims. Then there was, of course, the Vietnam War and the on-going War on Terror, where we, as Americans, believe it is our duty to swoop in and save these countries, no matter the fact that in some cases, our assistance was and is unnecessary. In 2010, when an earthquake devastated the land of Haiti and its people, America was quick to react and offer aid. When the Syrian Civil War began, we were quick to provide food, training and have even participated in airstrikes.
America, as a whole, has a hero complex. Now, I'm going to assume that whoever is reading this knows what a hero complex is but you know what they say about people who assume things, so I'm going to tel you anyway. Having a hero complex is basically the idea that people seek recognition for good deeds, even if that recognition only comes from themselves. This brings me back to why I mentioned our high school history classes. Compare the time you spent on World War Two and reading Anne Frank's diary, to the time you spent learning about slaves and Native Americans. I don't know about you, but in my experience, I spent about a month each year, starting in seventh grade until my senior year of high school learning about World War Two and how evil Hitler was and how brave Anne Frank was and how America was the hero who saved millions. While that may be true, why aren't we ever taught about the wrong doings that America has committed and why don't we talk about it? My knowledge of our treatment of the Native Americans would be sparse because of how my teachers always glossed over it, if it weren't for the fact that I'm a naturally curious person.
In 1492, Christopher Columbus led an exploration that was sponsored by Spain and he 'discovered' America; something that the majority of Americans celebrate on the second Monday of every October. Once word got back to Europe that there was a new land for people to ruin, North America quickly became inhabited and colonized. Before the massacres and removal of the Indigenous people began, we first brought diseases to them. The Indigenous people, having not been exposed to these diseases before and having no immunity against them, quickly fell ill and many died thanks to smallpox, measles cholera and typhus. While there is much controversy on the topic, there is a popular theory that Lord Jeffrey Amherst, an officer in the British Navy, knowingly gave Native Americans blankets that were infested with smallpox during the French and Indian War.
Almost two hundred years later, after using the Native Americans as slaves and laborers, the first Indian/American wars began. The Powhatan Wars or the Powhatan Confederacy as some call it, began in 1622 and lasted until 1644. The last war on the Native Americans occurred in 1890 in South Dakota and was named The Wounded Knee Massacre. About the wars, the Lakota Sioux Chief, Spotted Tail, once said, "This war did not spring up on our land, this war was brought upon us by the children of the Great Father who came to our land without a price, and who, in our land, do a great many evil things...This war has come from robbery - from the stealing of our land."
Probably the most devastating thing we have done to the Native Americans would be the Trail of Tears. In 1832, the southern states that contained members of the Cherokee tribe wanted them gone. They wanted them removed, whether it be willingly or forcefully. Instead of obeying, the Cherokee took their problems to the Supreme Court, who ruled that the native nations were sovereign nations and no state law could do them harm. President Andrew Jackson wasn't happy about that; he had long been an advocate of relocating the Native Americans, having signed the Indian Removal Act in 1830. This law said that Native Americans could be removed from their lands but only willingly and peacefully, something that the President never abided to. In 1838, only about 2,000 Cherokee's had left their homeland for their new Indian territories, or reservations. President Martin Van Buren continued what President Jackson started and sent 7,000 soldiers to forcibly remove the remaining members of the Cherokee tribe from Georgia. They marched the Natives more than 1,200 miles and it is estimated that over 5,000 Native Americans died. The ones that survived were place onto reservations in what is now Oklahoma. When this law came about, the federal government promised the Indigenous people that their new land would remained untouched, that it was all theirs and the government could not interfere. Well, guess what happened? We interfered and we still continue to do so. (Dakota Access Pipeline, anyone?)
While there is no way to be sure, it is widely believed that before the European settlers came to America, there was an estimated 18 million Native Americans occupying this country. That number now? In 2013, it was 5 million.
I look nothing like my ancestry, which includes Greek, Italian and Native American. I wasn't raised knowing a lot about my heritage or my ancestors and my interest in that part of me only developed in the past few years. Learning about what these people went through and how many people suffered makes me absolutely disgusted with the way our country is. We celebrate a man who started this idea that the Indigenous people of this country were evil, were aliens, and that they needed to be destroyed, an idea that lasted for centuries. Who in the hell does that remind you of? Could anyone in this world imagine Germany having an Adolf Hitler Day? The uproar it would cause from people around the world?
In more recent years, many local governments have chosen to not recognize Christopher Columbus Day, but to instead observe Indigenous People's Day, which is exactly what I plan on doing this coming Monday, October 10th.
Our generation constantly claims that we have something to prove to the generations that came before us, that it is our duty to correct their wrongs. So I urge you all to really consider that what we're meant to be celebrating is centuries worth of genocide and hatred towards innocent people and to instead honor and recognize those we have stolen from and mercilessly slaughtered. e claim that this is our land, but it never was and it never truly will be.
