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Subscribe to RSSPhotojournalist Andrew Lichtenstein is documenting sites important to America's past, with the idea that what he finds there reflects on what's important to people in the present. Introduction: About this project
Andrew Lichtenstein / Facing Change
Wounded Knee, South Dakota
Above: The small town of Wounded Knee on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota is a place filled with history. It is here in 1890 that the Seventh Cavalry massacred Big Foot's fleeing band in the snow, symbolically ending several centuries of Indian wars. The town was also the site of a 71-day stand off between FBI agents and American Indian Movement activists in 1973. Today the area, like much of the reservation, is mired in rural poverty.
Andrew Lichtenstein / Facing Change
Mystic, Connecticut
Above: The site of the 1637 Pequot Massacre in Mystic, Conn., where colonial troops slaughtered more than 500 women and children by setting a Pequot fort on fire and killing everyone who tried to flee, is now a suburban traffic circle near an Interstate 95 exit. A statue of the colonial soldier who led the raid, Capt. John Mason, used to stand in the circle, but it was moved in 1995 to Windsor, Conn. The Pequot Tribe, which was instrumental in having the statue moved, now owns the Foxwoods Casino, the largest employer in the area.
Andrew Lichtenstein / Facing Change
Sturgis, South Dakota
Above: Bear Butte, on the northern edge of the Black Hills in South Dakota, is where the Sioux and Cheyenne tribes received their creation myth. It is still a religious site of great importance, despite being only a few miles from the biker bars and annual motorcycle rallies of Sturgis. For thousands of years, American Indian tribes, including the Lakota, Dakota, Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Kiowa, Arikara, Hidatsa and Mandan, have traveled to Bear Butte to perform annual prayer ceremonies. While the mountain itself is a protected state park, there are plans for oil drilling in the surrounding area.
Andrew Lichtenstein / Facing Change
Winthrop, Massachusetts
Above: Deer Island in Boston Harbor. During the cold winter of 1676, at the height of King Phillip's War, Christian Indians were rounded up from their separate villages across New England and left on the exposed island, without food or blankets. Several hundred Indians who had embraced the colonists' way of life froze or starved to death.
Andrew Lichtenstein / Facing Change
West Yellowstone, Montana
Above: An estimated 60 million to 100 million bison once wandered across the American wilderness, in herds that stretched across the continent, from Canada to Mexico. By the end of the 1870s, in a conscious policy that combined the interests of the War Department attempting to starve the Indians on the western Plains, settlers seeking new land to farm and hunters out for a quick profit in hides, the animal was on the verge of extinction. In a single decade, millions of bison were slaughtered, their stripped carcasses left to rot where they fell. Today, only one continuous wild herd of around 3,000 animals survives, offspring of 23 stragglers who had managed to escape the slaughter by hiding in what is now Yellowstone National Park. During the winter, the animals are shot when they leave the boundaries of the park to look for food in the lowlands, where the snow is not as deep. Montana ranchers fear the spread of brucellosis to their domesticated cattle herds, even though there has never been a confirmed case of it spreading from bison to cattle.
Editor's note: This is Part 2 in a three-part series, History through the lens of today, that we're publishing in PhotoBlog this week.
Lichtenstein continues this work with the help of a grant from The Aftermath Project.
Leave a Comment:
Tribal lost the war. Get over it and move on. There is not 1 human that doesn't have descendants that weren't suppressed, beaten or killed. It is the same with blacks whining about slavery for example. Your Own people sold you into slavery. I didn't go over there, set traps and drag your behinds here. Progress. We need to learn from our bad ways. Whining doesn't teach anything. Heck less than 100 years ago women couldn't even vote. They are still being maimed, killed and suppressed. Should all USA women have tax free items? Should they get Per Capita by the thousands paid to them monthly? Seriously, get on with your lives.
You are equating not being able to vote with the wholesale slaughter of an indigenous people and their culture? To the persecution still going on today that is being sanctioned by the local and federal government in that criminal assaults against them resulting in death, rape and hospitalization is not prosecuted even when the attackers are known?
You don't even know what "it" is!
Hoka Hey!
Sounds more like you're the one whining.
Your response is an ignorant one, rjw007.
RWJ007:
Your lack of compassion and feeling is deplorable -- it was people of your mindset who took part in the slaughter. I looked at the photographs and read through the story....it touched my heart. I will pray to God that you are given the grace to learn compassion.
Well said screminmimi, and I would go one further to say that not only does rjw007 not know what "it" is, but that probably 90% of all Americans don't know what "it" is, and if we keep turning a blind eye to it, they never will. "It" is a scab that still needs to be ripped off from time to time so we all can feel the shame of some of the ugliest actions ever taken in the name of American prosperity. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana
rjw, simply put, you are an ignorant moron: the same ignorance that led to the destruction of some of the greatest cultures ever to exist. We Europeans should have learned from the Native Peoples, not slaughtered and imprisoned them in ignorance.
Hitler is deemed by modern society as the human monster; however the USA, one nation under God, genocided twice as many Native Americans as Hitler killed Jewish. In my library, I have two books I could never finish. One was the hideous tragedy of the American bison; the other was the story of the Native Californians, more massacred than any Native peoples on the continent. I had tremendous difficulty reading a tome on the history of wildlife in America -- after this Christian nation's blood bath from shore to shining shore.
One soul's god is another soul's evil monster.
I bet you're a republican.
I suppose you're cool with all that?!! Oh, and by the way, when I walk to a corner in South Central and there's illicit sales of some kind, I can choose NOT to purchase unlike your good christian white euros did in the slave trade!! At least the British Empire got a conscience and banned the practice of slavery worldwide... America the beautiful can never repay the price of the blood of innocents, people of color and the downtrodden (the white indentured servants)!!
rjw007 - It's pretty whinny and defeatist to cow to a status quo ante, a history of blood, tyranny and violence. This is not progress, just the progression of violence over the indigenous peoples of this planet. You are right - everyone in some deep past has been oppressed, even pagan Europe. But defeated in the name of progress? Progress of what? Megaton bombs, genocide, holocausts, a global neoliberal capitalist juggernaut vacuuming the oceans, damming the rivers and extirpating species and cultures and languages at a rapacious rate? That is a grand narrative that does not hold water and ends up in that precise defeatist nihilistic attitude that should be the enemy of us all.
RWJ-The only one above this posting w/any common sense
I worked in St. Francis, SD on the Rosebud Sioux reservation for a year. It might have been the saddest place I have ever been. The place I worked tried to help people on the reservation get jobs due to the near 80% plus unemployment rate in the surrounding area. Sadly many jobs go unfilled because it's difficult to find people that could pass the drug testing. The drug abuse on some of these reservations is through the roof.
Clearly rjw007 has no idea what he is talking about. His perception that "these" people are still "whining" about something that happened in the 1800's makes his misunderstanding apparent.
I get a little sick of the whining too. Get a damn job and move the hell on. People have lost wars since there were people to fight them, all over the whole planet. Before the white man came, they wiped each other out by the tribe. Performed human sacrifices too. Give it a rest already. The American Indian fought a war and lost, simple as that. All this "native" American crap is bull too, they came here from somewhere else just like everyone else here did. Indigenous population my ass.
rjw007,
You are obviously free to state your own opinion. However, as another reader stated previously, it sounds like YOU are the one doing the whining. I will assume you are a Caucasian of European descent, correct? I am not sure whether or not any of your ancestors were of the same mindset as most of the colonists that left "Jolly 'ol England" a few hundred years ago, albeit to escape from persecution and being told what to do, when to do, and how to do. If you ARE a member of that ancestral group, it surprises me that someone running from persecution would turn around and virtually do the EXACT SAME THING to another group of people, in addition to numerous other groups of people around the world. To this day, there are, still, "colonial" pieces of property being claimed by the United States which, again, was "discovered" and founded by a group of persecuted people. Take the Virgin Islands. Why are they, still, mentioned as the U.S. Virgin Islands? There were people already living there as were the Native Americans living in present-day America prior to the "discovery" by Christopher Columbus. It would appear that the "Americans" of the "Caucasian persuasion" have yet to learn some valuable lessons from the past either. Instead of "whining" and "complaining," why don't you help someone who needs it. (If you already are, disregard and continue serving God by serving others.)
Kiambe
tunsilk - It doesn't matter if he is Caucasian or of European descent. You would be hard pressed to find a civilization/population/race on this planet that didn't conquer someone else prior to being conquered. I would guess that there are few if any that you would uncover, so everyone has someone that they can point the "you did this to us" finger at. No one's hands are clean and in many, many places this stuff still happens and it's not by any stretch of the imagination all Caucasians or Europeans. It's a pay grade above mine to decide how far back in history someone can look to claim some form of reparation.
Let me guess...you're white. You're ancestors came to this land, and told many lies, and took many lives so that you could live comfortable in a land you don't belong in, and was outright stolen by white government, with broken treaty after broken treaty. Naive American "Reservations", which are mostly not more than prisons because the land is so poor, crops can't be grown, cattle, sheep, goats and horses can't roam and eat wild natural grasses, yet they, the people, are SUPPOSED to be parts of sovereign Nations, seperate from the US government. Your white government even forgets that, and in the case of Wounded Knee, which this story is about, came in and occupied and KILLED people within' a sovereign Nation, and violated even more treaties, aka words of lies. Yeah....we understand your ignorant Imperialist arrogance. We see it on the news everyday, and we've dealt with it and been subjected to it for quite a while now. Please come back and play when you grow up, develop a brain, and open your eyes!
Terry, ignorance is defined as the lack of knowledge, learning, or information. It also defines you, you mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging moron. You have no clue what you are talking about. The Native Peoples did not fight a war; they were massacred by your very kind, fellow ignorant, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging morons.
Stay on the reservation live in poverty. Plain and simple. The reservations for the most part especially out west are in the middle of bum f*ck nowhere. I have been to Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument. It is right in the middle of the Crow reservation. The closest city is Billings and it is small and FIFTY MILES away. No US or even a foreign company is ever going to locate there. My guess is that US companies avoid the reservations because who needs another layer of government telling them what to do. Along with the problems that poverty brings with it.
RWJ....dang you need to take a pill and take a nap for a little while. Maybe when you wake up you'll feel better. Maybe everything will disappear...like it didn't even happen. All those people old people, women, children...they didn't count anyway. It's not like they were made by God and had thoughts of love, life, happiness, hopes, they weren't real people anyway, right RWJ?
Hey RJW, you seemed to have stirred up alot of people who think your comment stinks!!! And as far as the Native Americans are concerned, and to quote a Native American scholar and attorney, I'm glad they have casinos on the reservations, so alot of stupid white Americans can go and lose their rent money! White Americans can give back what they took 300 yrs ago, and have fun doing it!! Europeans have a history of destroying civilizations/populations and races all around the world. Even there own! Why do you think Europeans started coming into the Americas!?
This is all very interesting, but it makes me wonder what if in say 20 years from now China would decide to help native Americans reclaim land that was taken from them. Given our efforts to help Israel reclaim their lands would it not be hard for America to deny the claims of native Americans?
Rose123 - Again...Conquering other civilizations is by no stretch of the imagination a euro-centric phenomenon. If you read up on the history of the Aztecs, Incans, Mayans, Egyptians, Chinese, Maori, and any number of past and present African and Middle Eastern peoples you will see that conquering others or fighting to take land, etc away from each other is a widespread activity. Might even say that it's the world's historical pasttime.
I would recommend Jared Diamond's excellent "Guns, Germs, and Steel" to get a good feeling of who and why in history people conquered each other.
RJW isn't completely wrong. We all do need to get over "it" but we should never forget "it" and we most certainly must learn from "it".
skor154, you should read up on the Trail of Tears. A genocide in slow motion, after yet another treaty was broken by white government, and the Cherokee, in mid winter were forced to walk from the Southeast US, to desolate Oklahoma, and many died on the way from freezing, or sheer lack of food. That's of course if the white soldiers didn't shoot them for fun target practice. Kinda like they've done in Iraq and Afghanistan, and still claim to be righteous everytime they fired a bullet
It was deplorable what the Europeans did to the Native Americans and Slavery was as well, but guess what.... it was in the past and we really do need to get over it and heal and move on in unity. And before you get on me about not knowing what I am talking about or I must be white or whatever, let me just say you are wrong. I have Indian blood as well as European blood and many of my ancestors, Indian and Caucasian, were enslaved and downtrodden etc. History is full of examples of mans inhumanity to man. Rehashing the same old crap over and over is not helping and is not progress. It only makes people angry at "others", which by the way is what our control freak leaders want so they can distract us from what they are doing. Its the old us versus them scenario. We all live in this country together now and what we have is what we have. Lets learn to accept everyone equally and move on with our lives. Also for those of you who don't know welfare and handouts are the governments way of controlling people. When they give you money they can tell you what to do. Just look at the hoops you have to jump through to get it. Besides where is the pride in accepting handouts? Everyone has the opportunity to stand on their own two feet and be proud of themselves. I rarely agree with rjw007, but in this case I do. I'm not saying forget about it, I'm saying lets move on and make a better world now.
skor and minions
Indians killed more indians than "whitey"
What do you think those savages were doing to each other for thousands of years...exchanging buffalo recipes?
Genocide. The first modern era genocide occurred on these lands called America. When the Europeans came here they were welcomed, fed and taught to survive on this land. They were people who were actually paid by Britain to leave and find another land in the name of religious freedom only to persecute those first people, American Indians, that resided on these lands and prospered taking only what they needed.
When the Euros became firmly encamped the greed was too much for them with disregard for their Christian beliefs. As a famous professor told us as young freshmen at a famous university, "You might not have committed the atrocities against the first inhabitants of these lands, but still today you reap the wealth and prosperity of it. Now that you have been informed of this you are no longer ignorant of these facts so the future will hold you directly responsible for all of the treaties that were never honored to this day and the future unless you change that future and honor the business agreements that were made in your name."
We were not your enemies until you became the aggressors then we protected our posterity and way of life from your greed and certain annihilation. Yes, you are guilty of genocide against a people who will not go away. It still goes on today unless you have forgotten Jack Abramoff and the K Street gang from the G.W. Bush era and the full participation by members of Congress and some elected and appointed GOP officials. Yes, G.W. Bush did leave more than one legacy as his ilk reminded us all that American Indians will always be targets by the majority due to the fact they are truly the minority of the world especially when they number around 2 million people but they did survive every attempt to wipe them from the face of Grandmother. EMCNJJC88 you and your kind are truly big men in the eyes of a man's man. Just maybe you are a legend in your own mind too. We cannot forget the Buffalo Soldiers either. Mvto
The U S census in 1894 estimated the population at 500,000 pre 1492.
There are more indians now than then.
Intellect
You're a twit
Take that OWS if everyone is just a communist, the world would be a better place, crap and peddle it to your liberal weenie types somewhere else.
What a great place this would have been without whitey
No wheels, no tools, no nothing but dream hoops.
Intellect (misnomer): I am no more responsible for the acts performed by the early Europeans then I am for the neighborhood criminal that robbed the store last night. I am responsible for my own behavior, period. What a ridiculous argument you have presented. Your name should be ignorant perpetual victim.
Are you kidding me? Not a misnomer in fact. It is your lack of reading comprehension or guilt that does not allow you to see what has been said. Do you not benefit from the natural resources whether finite or infinite to this day to earn your living either directly or indirectly? Will not your posterity benefit from that which was taken under a broken business agreement? I know both of those answers are yes unless you do not live in America. This cannot be denied if you live on this soil whether a U.S. citizen or not.
Intellect "or lack of", you are full of crap. For the most part the American Indians were a bunch of nomadic tribes running around the whole continent with very little organization. They ran whole herds of buffalo off cliffs just to get bison burgers for dinner. These people didn't even have horses until the Spanish explorers came. Horses had been extinct for 10,000 years on the North American Continent. If the white man had not shown up here, these people would still be chasing animals on foot, making flint arrows, killing each off like dogs, and performing human sacrifices. The American Indian is better off now than he was in pre-Columbian times. Besides, if they don't like it, maybe China and Russia will take them back, that is where they came from.
Natural resources, They would still be praying to them if they had there way..
Real geniuses those native americans
The nomadic were located in the Plains and desert areas. The Eastern Woodlands and New England area were not nomadic as you have stated. As a matter of fact many of the tribal towns of the Muscogee Confederation still exist to this day such as Eufaula, GA. It is you who does not have the facts straight and I sense anger from you. Anger from a person in instances such as this would indicate a sense of denial. Do some reading instead of watching too much television. Start with a university that has a federal repository on site and then start commenting.
There were tribes such as in Montana that did drive herds off cliffs and then gathered their kill and prepared it for winter season. The Western Shoshone were very nomadic due to the resources that migrated and availability throughout today's Nevada area. The California tribes were not of nomadic origin but actually sessile by nature. They fished and did some cropping. The Wampanoag were sessile too and inhabited towns in MA. So your catch all statement out of anger is just that and unfounded my friend. Do some research and leave the John Wayne movies as what they are, movies. Mvto.
And the Hekowies were gay.
Who cares
So Intellect if we did it your way every broken treaty or agreement that ever occurred on the face of the earth would have to be honored, many of which can't even be remembered and all the land given back to the original inhabitants, which includes most, if not all, of the earth. Or does it only apply to American Indians? Its ridiculous don't you see. It can not and will not happen. Just because I benefit from living here still doesn't make me responsible for someone else's actions. They weren't even my ancestors. Your proposition and that of your professor is unrealistic and falls under the category of 2 wrongs making a right. The present is what we have to work with and blaming today's population for past wrongs is erroneous. As much as you want to blame others for your situation it doesn't fly. Get over it and move on in a positive way. Blame is not positive. You're not getting the land back. Deal with what we have now. And no you are wrong... my reading comprehension is fine and I have no guilt for the acts of others. Your argument is simply wrong.
I have a great situation as I took the time and my own money and earned a BS and MS in a science area and put it to work earning a great living with wonderful benefits. The ability to give back to others happens to be one of those benefits.
As for the history it is mere fact and not based on myth, Louis Lamont stories or history that has been rewritten to tone down the savagery practiced back in the early beginnings of this nation. Our history classes were based upon pulling papers written by Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Jackson and other men of this country and composing assertions on what we had read.
My argument is not wrong but truthful. Can you purchase a home under a business contract and expect to live in it for the rest of your life without paying on the mortgage or a car for that fact? There is no difference and yet you know that no treaties were ever honored or even close to being honored except for on statement. "We will take your land."
RP, you must realize, the Native Americans were destroyed and annihilated before any scientific research was conducted on their societies. The only Native Americans scientifically researched and studied were the Californians, just like Ishi. The USA was only interested in annihilating the Native Americans, thus much folkloria and folk tales existed without scientific research, reality and facts.
The white man painted unrealistic tales and stories about the Native Americans that were flawed in reality. They painted them as being exceedingly warring whereas, the Native Californians didn't even possess war weaponry. The shell mounds un-earthed in California, indicated, multi-thousands of years passed without any dramatic, earth shattering events, like famine, pandemics, and wars, almost unheard of globally and in history.
Folktales indicate, the tribes warred among themselves, but this was only indicative of the appearance of the white conquerers, who destroyed their lifestyles and confiscated their homes, their land and their lives. This is when, they engaged in warring, fighting to preserve their homes and properties because the white man or good ole USA, pushed them off their lands and their homes. They were homeless, helpless and starving when the USA pushed them off their homes and lands! Not representative of their beliefs, religion and lifestyles.
What would we do, under the same catastrophic events and holocaust; they were being pushed extinct by one nation under god and Jesus lovers!
Skor154 - I am not suggesting that what you're saying is untrue, but you can claim that RP uses the flawed logic of not having an accurate study to base his beliefs on since as you say the native Americans weren't scientifically studied until after they had already been "annihilated and destroyed" then turn around and base your beliefs on the study of a tiny sampling of native Americans in your reference to the California tribes. You are essentially saying that since the California tribes didnt have weapons therefore that must mean that no native Americans had weapons for war. That's seriously flawed logic.
No one disputes that what the US did to the native americans was wrong, but to put the native Americans on some pedestal as if they were all peace loving is ridiculous. Plus, many native American tribes were studied well before they even fought with the European settlers.
So Intellect you are living proof that people can stand on their own two feet and take care of themselves and their families, just as everyone should do. Which is one of my points. You attack my reading comprehension and yet I see yours is lacking despite your BS and MS. I never once argued the validity of your take on history. I know it was a horrible thing that was done to the American Indians. I got that OK. My argument is that its been done to almost every group of people, if not every group, on the face of the planet. Present day people cannot be expected to make reparations for every wrong done to every group throughout time. Its ridiculous don't you see. Or do you selfishly only care about yourself and your ancestors and just want reparation for them? Selfishness makes you no better then the early white settlers who wiped out the early tribes. Get this through your head.... your self centered attitude is making your reasoning flawed about what to do in the present. Me taking out a mortgage now and having to honor it is irrelevant to what has happened a hundred years ago or more. On a similar but separate note... was it right for banks to give mortgages to people they knew could not afford them and then take their houses away later? Of course not, but it happens. Its wrong, but those people aren't going to get their houses back. We need to deal with our present situation and make things better going forward. The point of remembering the past is to not repeat past mistakes, not to keep reopening old wounds and wining oh poor me look what happened to my ancestors. Dude, it happened to my ancestors too. Indian and white. I have both and they both suffered at the hands of some other group. We can't go back and right every wrong ever done. You act like the white men were the only ones to commit atrocities against the Indians. When in reallity they had been doing the same against each other for hundreds of years before the whites got here. With your reasoning the Indians owe each other reparations as well. Your myopic viewpoint seems to miss those details. Seems like someone got you all worked up and convinced you someone owed you something and egocentricity latched onto it and now you can't see the forest for the trees. You don't live in a vacuum. There are many people out here with the same rights as you and you want to stomp all over them. Makes you no better then the early settlers you are mad at.
Some of the responses here make me think that a lot of that nasty history described above would likely repeat itself today with the present generations. Native Americans should have slaughtered the first settlers to the last man to protect their way of life. But it happened otherwise so now we all must make a new way of life for ourselves - one that has truth and dignity.
Ahhh, so this is how the term 'white devil' got created.
What's left is to learn from our mistakes and to treat everyone regardless of race, nationality, gender, social status, age and sexual orientation equally.
Indian casinos are proof they lost the battles but won the war.
It's a popular misconception that every Tribe has a casino on its reservation and that every Indian is wealthy because of it.
In the meantime, every time you take an aspirin, remember that the Indians gave it to the white man. It's made from the bark of willow trees. They boiled the bark and made a tea from it to alive pain.
Those ignorant dirty savages!
screminmimi - Your aspirin story is also a popular misconception. The benefits of the powder and tea versions from the same barks was described by Hippocrates as early as 400 BC.
Perhaps, but the Europeans had no knowledge of it.
I dont mean to be a pill, but that's not true at all. Egyptians, Romans, and Greek civilizations used it and it has been part of western European medical history in written pharmaceutical use since the Middle Ages. Native Americans surely provided the bark to Europeans to use, but the Europeans would have been knowledgeable about it's benefits and uses.
screminmimi your bias and ignorance is showing.
The above comment is without a doubt, the most heartless, contemptuous and unfeeling comment I have yet to read in this article, rjw007. Your compassion for the American Native is boundless, isn't it? Just think of all the kind words I'm sure you will have to say about any article s that might appear about, say, the Jewish race that certain Europeans tried to exterminate. I guess it's a reflection of our times- we can't even be made aware that we were, as a settling race of foriegners, a murderous lot, bent on conquering and ridding the New World of human beings that got in our way.
Breaking, the cold facts are, USA genocided twice as many Native Americans as Hitler killed Jewish. I have researched the Native Americans for years. What this nation did was as evil and vile as it gets. The article mentioned Wounded Knee, where many little children were butchered. The Christian soldiers had no problems with massacre after massacre, including bashing babies heads on tree trunks.
The Native Californians had no war weapons when the white, Christians massacred, tribe after tribe; thus the story of Ishi, Last of his Tribe was born. The Native Californians thought one nation under God was a society of crazy, insane peoples as the first Californians didn't war.
When a stone age culture meets a advanced culture they lose. It is a basic fact. The entire genre of science fiction is based on it. The advanced race of aliens discover a land of immense natural resources with a population in the way of "progress" or even outright theft. Was racism involved, you bet. Were promises and treaties broken, you bet. Was it a genocide, yes. England tried to restrain the colonists to the east-side of the Alleghenies and tried to honor the treaties they made with the tribes during the French and Indian war. The colonists revolted. Once the French lost that war the colonists wanted English troops (their countrymen) out of the way so they could move west and plunder. Today we are taught that the revolution was about British taxing the poor colonists and freedom. The Indians got a better shake from the French. But the French lost and Napoleon sold New France to The United States. No surprise that a culture that allowed slavery would kill of entire peoples to steal their land and resources. Andrew Jackson committed a huge genocide and he is honored on the twenty dollar bill. As is Grant on the fifty.
Ya, sure kimosabe
Huh, Kimosabe.
rjw007........nice to see your so compassionate. The fact is, Native Americans are still repressed to this day. The government of the United States didn't deal with these First Nations in good faith. They had no intention of honoring their agreements. Treaties were routinely ignored when it suited the United States government - like when gold was discovered in the Black Hills.
Recent governments aren't exactly doing a whole lot to remedy the deplorable situations on reserves either. This is happening now. Try walking in their shoes. It's easy to pass judgement when you haven't lived their life.
Wow people really did get worked up over that post. The conversation has been educational as well as interesting. Thanks. But let's be real here. Has the government never lied to you in the past, and for heaven sakes as we speak. Do we still lose our lives (wars, health issues,economy, laws, etc) and homes because of these lies? The point is that this has been happening since the beginning of time. At some point in anyone's life one has to evaluate, own and make their lives what they want them to be. Telling one they have clean hands over and over doesn't make it true. What has happened to the Blacks, Native Americans, Poor, Women, Children, etc, in the USA will only change when we quit preying on each other. I will repeat I did learn from the posts, and I thank you all for expressing your thoughts. I stand by the post.
This is important human history that is brought back to remind us of where we came from and the treacherous things people do to each other in the name of 'progress'.
If many other people thought like you do, well, that would be pathetic, sad and @!$%#ty. You're a moron.
Can this be true? Montana is killing the bison if they leave the park to look for food?! Outrageous!!
I searched online and found new efforts to protect the bison.
It was true but they have now moved the bison to 2 Montana Indian reservations.
Lynne, they've been killing them for years. It is as normal for a bison to seek warmer and lower altitudes in the freeze of winter as is natural for the sun to shine. This article mentioned the insanity, telling of the disease, supposedly bison have, yet never has a cow contacted it. They just love to kill living things...
We need to reel in these bison, wolf killing redneck states. They are big time Earth haters and butchers. They have no comprehension, that both the bison and the wolf are the strands in the web of all life or biological diversity, in the economy of all life. The Native Americans comprehended this, something we have yet to discover.
The ignorance and narcissism among white Christian Americans is simply staggering.
People, people. Us vs. them obvuscates the real problems going on. I have known good and bad people of all races and creeds. Stop fighting with each other and lets find real solutions. Come on!!
Of course it is. The Salish Kootenai have been trying to manage the herds alongside the USFWS for at least a decade now, but they will not have it. The bison are slaughtered and the USDA is kind enough to donate the carcases to tribe who are willing and able to drive hundreds of miles to retrieve them. I was at the Rocky Boys Reservation in Montana during a January one year when a young man came back with four carcases to distribute to the tribal members. It took about four hours before all of it was gone. You would think the USDA and NPS could at least provide a means to get the bison the wanting people.
Intellect, the redneck states are NOT slaughtering four or five bison. They are killing so many, that just a few years ago, the herd had diminished so depleted, they actually were forced by the feds to stop this outrageous slaughter of this great American icon. Nothing is as American as our oldest, more ancient mammal, the mammal with the most vocalizations, the mammal that survived the great mammal dieoff. Our only, American bison. As American as hickory trees and bald eagles.
Fortunately, long ago, I was afforded the rare opportunity to spend time within a bison herd. It was one of my most religious experiences of a life time. I was exalted; a Native American, running wild with America and life on the continent, the real life, the real America. It was as holy as life ever gets. I was merely a member of the herd, just one part of the whole -- life on a miracle, our Earth. Golly, they are great animals to spend time and life within their community of life or a strand in the web of all life. After all, life is all about life.
Skor you are correct. I was being sarcastic with my comment but you are correct the ranchers do not want to share their leased federal land with the majestic bison. The best herd is located on Pine Ridge land and are open range. A must see if one ever travel to South Dakota.
rjw007 - So exterminating people that to you were obviously "squatting" on "our" land Before we got here is ok? The things we did to them is just horrendous...
klondiko you sound as if it would be OK for the government to move you to a small "Reservation", take your weapons, rape you, not feed you, and then pay you $10 or hand you some fur.
If this is a photoblog about historic places in Native American and American history, then where are the photos of General Custer's and Sitting Bull's last stand? Trail of Tears?
The USA or one nation under god, butchered more Native Americans than Hitler killed Jewish, but heay, we are the good guys, right?
And the Jewish faith get all the air time and coddling. What is wrong with this picture? They even continue to remind the world what happened to them and do a lot of whining according to the posters on this site. I am not begrudging them of taking advantage of the notoriety nor am I down playing Their holocaust.
"Photojournalist Andrew Lichtenstein is documenting sites important to America's past", I didn't read how anyone in this article is asking for anything. However, know that you mention it, if you compare what was forcibly given up (land, oil, gold, resources, etc.) compared to what was paid...shameful is a kind word. Some people have a hard time with truth in history. What's that old saying "if you don't know your past your bound to repeat it".
I visited Wounded Knee many years ago and could not photograph it. With all the prayer feathers there, I could not take lightly the importance of this holy place! A very sad, very shameful thing happened there.
Wombat, you articulated it beautifully, magnificently, Holy, a Holy place. Blessings to you; you possess a soul.
Native Americans - you mean the people that came here from what is now called Siberia?
What's wrong with Siberia? At least it is not a parking lot or a concrete jungle, about as life supporting and creating as the surface of Mars. Siberia is vibrating with life and life giving with their boreal forests/ecosystems, all the reasons you breathe.
You got it wrong. Ever hear about the Kon Tinki theory? The Native Californians were ancient Polynesians that were hoping to reach the Hawaiian Islands, and when they missed, settled California. Santa Barbara Native Californians possessed the identical water craft or canoes as the ancient Polynesians.
They did indeed. I had the honor of working with the California Rancherias for two years as a federal scientist. A wonderful group of people. Now comes the real kicker when you look at the history of San Louis Obisbo you will find mass murder and buried remains under the court yard of this Catholic landmark. If they could not be converted then they were summarily discarded. Fact and take the time to research it before you react.
@rjw007 So what your saying is that whites shouldn't whine about the mexicans taking over the USA because it's a trend of another culture taking over this land. And what your telling me is that it was ok for the European's to steal the land from the American Indian but it's not ok when the Mexicans are taking over the USA. The same laws that the USA is implementing now are the same laws that the American Indian had when the European's arrived. It's just that The Europeans didn't respect the American Indians laws because they wanted more land for themselves, and once they got it they were to lazy to work it so they went to Africa and came back to America with Africans to do their dirty work. You may not have gone to Africa but your ancestors sure did.
Like I've stated before, what is the price of saving a culture? a million dollars? more? we the American people have have done the unthinkable to the Native Americans...we have stolen their lands and destroyed not only their lives, but their culture as well. the most endangered species on the planet? the American Indian.
A lot, and I mean A Lot of Indians are getting Filthy stinking Rich with their Casino's. Are they sharing any of those Riches with other Indians?? I have gone to these Indian Casino's and from what I see the payout's on the machine's are Zip, Nada, Nothing, so they must be raking it in. In Biloxi the payout's are Much, Much, Much better. And Indians are not Native to this country. They came from somewhere else also. They didn't just grow here from the Grass.
I think your missing the point. Please, go to Biloxi...they miss you.
We committed no genocide to live on this land. You, however, cannot say that, Tarzan.
screminmimi: again your bias and ignorance are showing. The tribes fought each other and practiced their own genocide long before the whites came.
Also sceminmimi I can say that my white ancesters committed no genocide to live on this land. They came afterward. I cannot say the same for my Indian ancesters.
I've enjoyed reading alot of these posts AND have learned some new things. As for the ones who are saying "stop whining/complaining" - YOU need to be more open minded. LEARN the real American History, not the one you were taught in elementary that you probably still believe (yeah, Chris Columbus "discovered" America - and theres a bridge in Brooklyn that's for sale). My theory is stupid CAN learn, but ignorant refuses to.
I disagree... ignorant can learn but you can't fix stupid.
Our history, like most, has dark chapters. But the continuing shame is the condition of too many of the reservations today.
It is to painfully sad to read any more.
Why does the word "genocide" never appear when this subject is discussed?
rjw007--
You should see a brain specialist, this kind of statment only came from a victim of brain damage. After your consultation and treatment onsidere to digue in to the history books how the young African was traped in their small village hijacked, enslaved, transported across the sea in the cage like animals, thrown in the sea to feed sharks... for God sake donn't revive that less than human heartless treatment they had to endure, this generation is very willing to forget, sometimes it is good to revisit history not for retaliation but to learn from that past generation mistakes.We are all part of this small planet, we have no choice than to learn hard to coexist help the nature, so it can withstand the negatif impact emanating from our so called civilization
Have another peyote
A distant cousin of mine greeted the pilgrims at Plymouth in English. You'll never read that in any white history book. The native Americans that saved the same from a winter starvation helped foster our sacred traditional "Thanks Giving Day". So much of todays medicines and foods were gifts from the native American Indian. The sacrifice of so many cultures and peoples for who once explored and lived in the far reaches of the Americas has never fully been documented for one to read in one book, much less studied in our schools. It's understandable then to see the ignorance of those who choose to ignore the rich heritage that I enjoy and appreciate in trying to understand how other indigenous groups thrive where white settlers cannot. The shame is not being able to enjoy the harmonious position and wealth that we once had.
White, when the first, European explorers reached California, they wrote in their journals, though they had pulled into many ports and many lands, they had never discovered a people who loved each other so much as the Native Californians. A young, strong, hunter would share the best of the hunt with an elderly, helpless woman. The feathers on their headbands represented all the good they shared with the people; their concept of wealth and riches were vastly different as they believed, a rich person was one who shared and helped others, not so fortunate. Their concepts of wealth was totally inverse to ours; wealth was all about, helping others and the greater good of all.
The strongest who helped others was the richest. So inverse to our concepts of wealth.
Observations...
Other than stirring the pot, this article has no use.
Since I don't personally have the power to end the bison hunt, the only option left is to equate today's bison killers with the butchers of earlier - which they are in spades. All of them, for any reason.
ALL people who were born in the United States are native Americans. Those termed American Indians may qualify for the moniker 'aboriginal' Americans, but they are not exclusively native Americans.
This is the 21st century. Yes, we respect our history, but it is well past time to move ahead - which we can't do as long as there are useless articles like this to drag us back to the past. If this article had some [any] deeper meaning, that would be different, but it does not.
Other than stirring the pot, this article has no use.
It isn't the past. The persecution is still happening. It's just not being reported by the news media and it's being whitewashed.
Are, how can you say what you did, when this nation, one nation under god, genocided twice as many Native Americans as Hitler killed Jewish. It's been written, the persecuted, like the Jewish, keep this in the conscious and conscience of all societies as representative of evil. Isn't it ironic, no American Natives have that treasured opportunity! Look at their societies. Perceive their poverty -- unless they've discovered the vices of gambling and addictions. Another American tragedy!
What's your opinion of slaughtering the only natural, wild bison American herd in America, an animal as American as hickory trees and bald eagles, of mountain top majesties and shining seas or God's country. What God can shoulder these ongoing atrocities? What God advocates genocide and ecocide and slaughter?
The American bison is biological diversity, a creator and savior of our American ecosystems or all the reasons man breathes. Save the bison, save oxygen releasing, the atmosphere, the climate, the creation and renewal of the soil, the nitrogen cycle, the hydrological storage and flux and the circulation of vital nutrients and the creation and renewal of the biosphere, the very life zone of the Earth, to name a handful of ecosystem services, functions and cycles.
How can anyone condone evil, persecution and extinction? What is evil, after all? How can anyone advocate for the death of the Earth?
The senseless slaughtering was termed as the "Scorched Earth Policy" which is still used today by our military. Remove their source of food and the enemy will perish.
Reading through the comments is interesting. I have much compassion for the American Indians for I am an 1/8th Lakota, Blackfoot. My grandmothers Mother was raped by a white man and she was abolished by her tribe over her becoming pregnant, she gave my grandmother up for adoption. This drew my interest in american history, especially native americans.
I would encourage people to actually study the American Indian History, for their is much more to it. I will try to give some condensed snapshots to hopefully increase some peoples interest to study the history. For what we were taught in school, was pretty sad.
Before Europeans came in the 1500's, They were warriors, soldiers, trappers, family men not victims. They taught us how to survive in the Northeast, for without there help we would have perished. They taught the british and the french and dutch and spanish the true art of guerrilla warfare, The Army Rangers were formed as a result of that in the 1750's by the british and americans. However the rangers proved still to be little match for them.The Indians had wars with one and enslaved one another, but not to the extent we enslaved.
Many of the early battles was over fur trade rights and hunting rights. many Indians died from biological warfare, (smallpox). The Northeast Indians (Iroquois), which actually consisted of many tribes that united were french aligned and joined the french to attack the British in the 1750's, except the Mohican's allied with the British, for they did not like the french.
The Iroquis killed many british colonials and had the scalps to show for it. They as well slaughtered many woman and children. They were experts at forest warfare, the british were at a huge disadvantage for several years. Much of the extinction of beavers and otters and such was a result of the fur trade which the Indians were very much involved in both on the USA and Canadian side.
The Cherokee's suprisingly were slave owners of negroes and took several hundred of their slaves on the trail of tears with them to Oklahoma. Other tribes also had Negro's for slaves.
Like the African's some Indian tribes would conquer another tribe and sell them as slaves to europeans.
Interestingly before the Spanish Conquest, the Northern part of Mexico had actually belonged to the Northern American Indians. The Inca's tried to take it, but lost. The Spaniards never really held the southern United States, for they kept losing it back to the Indians, after Mexico's independence Mexico only owned it for 26 years, before losing it to the U.S. Army, however we never regained what the Southwest Indians had held for thousands of years.
I would encourage those interested to study the American Indians from the 1500's on. They will turn from poor victims, to a pretty smart fairly civilized group, they had there own cities and forts way before we showed up. The only reason they were conquered was mostly do to the diseases the Europeans brought with them which killed hundreds of thousands of Indians and because they chose politics over uniting together. Kind of like what Americans are doing today.
I would encourage reading a American historical book released this last December called "Conquered into Libert" by Eliot A. Cohen
He did some painstaking work to give accurate accounts and gives much insite into the native american Indian which will have one appreciate them more.
Thank you Bigot Racist Discrimination, Hater. Finally a voice of reason in a sea of ignorant bias.
Nice fairy tale indian bigot
About 1/10 of it was possibly the stretched truth
Especially the smallpox fable, biological warfare...funny
And the one about they didn't kill as many of their own as whitey...that's rich
They were real intelligent,tolerant of other indian customs
Inventors of lots of things...like scalping
Ummmmmm, no fable - buddy. Please dry up.
The Native Americans spent thousands of years in biological isolation - and across the pond Europeans were getting Smallpox, Bubonic Plague and a host of others. A truly disgusting chapter in our history ensued when the Europeans crossed the pond. There was a lot we could have done to save the Native Americans. Too bad we didn't learn a thing from them.
RP,
If your goal is to look foolish, you are succeeding. Research all I put in there or anyone else who doubts. It is easy to do. However to call it fairy tales without doing any research does not make one look to bright.
I encouraged you to read "Conquered into Liberty" by Eliot A. Cohen
He is renowned by many for his historical research. Read it.
Fact is, on at least one occasion a high-ranking European considered infecting the Indians with smallpox as a tactic of war. I'm talking about Lord Jeffrey Amherst, commander of British forces in North America during the French and Indian War (1756-'63). Amherst and a subordinate discussed, apparently seriously, sending infected blankets to hostile tribes. What's more, we've got the documents to prove it, thanks to the enterprising research of Peter d'Errico, legal studies professor at the University of Massachusetts at (fittingly) Amherst. D'Errico slogged through hundreds of reels of microfilmed correspondence looking for the smoking gun, and he found it.
The exchange took place during Pontiac's Rebellion, which broke out after the war, in 1763. Forces led by Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawa who had been allied with the French, laid siege to the English at Fort Pitt.
According to historian Francis Parkman, Amherst first raised the possibility of giving the Indians infected blankets in a letter to Colonel Henry Bouquet, who would lead reinforcements to Fort Pitt. No copy of this letter has come to light, but we do know that Bouquet discussed the matter in a postscript to a letter to Amherst on July 13, 1763:
Intellect,
What you stated is very true and is documented in our history books. Thank you for sharing that, I
debated sharing that, but wished instead for people to know a little broader history. Our progressive relationship with the Indians was intertwined. All sides tried to benefit for their own gain.
Ultimately the American Indian ended up with the worst part of the deal, in part because of the many deaths do to smallpox and other diseases. Had that not happened, it would have left them well populated and could have rewrote the outcome of our American history. I have just started scratching the surface of pre revolution study's, it is very interesting. Gives one a different perspective of the american revolution.
Mvto. If you ever have the opportunity please read the diary of the first Indian Agent McIntosh. He began surveying and taking notes of the Southeastern Tribes at the request of the federal government. He soon took a Muscogee wife and became a member of the nation and remained. His offspring became a well know chief in the Muscogee Nation and made some hard choices to insure their survival from Jackson's Indian War. You will find his diary rich in real history and the demeanor of these people not to mention their advanced society.
Is that the name to look for it "the diary of the first Indian Agent McIntosh"?
I am interested. Presently I am studying Pre Revolution through post in New England and working south from there on the colonies.
Andrew Jacksons Indian War post dates what I am presently studying, however I plan to study that era more in depth once I complete the full study on the colonies.
Here is the actual title: Hawkins, Benjamin, Indian Agent, and Chief McIntosh. My mother is from the McIntosh family line and Hawkins. Good luck with your readings as you will find them very enlightening and a source of enrichment.
Intellect,
Thankyou for sharing that and your encouragement. I will purchase and read the book.
You have a great evening
Did you really believe in those old cowboy and Indian movies, reflecting the imagery of the Native American? At least, the Native Americans, unlike our current worldview, were not so stupid as to kill Earth's ecosystems or all the reasons man breathes and exists, right?
The white settlers of California would go out after church on Sundays and find American Indians, kill them and then scalp them for the $20 bounty on the males' scalps. This was prevalent in northern California. Once again a documented historical fact.
There problem is they don't have a GAY spokesman
Bear Butte...Isn't it strange that they came to this place for "thousands of years" when they didn't have a wheel until "whitey" showed up.
I see liberals were alive and well back then in Boston...killing Christian indians...I bet they would love to do that to all Christians today. tsk,tsk,tsk,
Studying the history, the Indians did not like the puritan religion, (mostly because it had to be read to be understood and the bible was not in their language) But, they took a likeing to catholism when the french introduced it to them and some of the tribes included some aspects of the mystery's of catholism in their own beliefs on their own in canada and the Iraqouis.
The french worked harder for actual relations with the indians as far over as the sioux nation in minnesota and the dakota's, so the majority of northern Indians were actually both helping and cheering for the french to conquer the british.
Ya, those french, real stand-up guys
I think they taught the mohawks how to boil people
Which Mohawks? In the french Indian war you actually had mohawks fighting mohawks.
Actually, the mohawks that walked with a limp...Oh, so they did kill each other..uummm
You know how stupid you fools sound with the smallpox fable...It's only been debunked for 50 years now
Read Michael Medveds 10 Biggest Lies..
It's not as funny as those anti-whitey, OWS screeds, but more informative
I believe Michael Medveds is refering to the Churchill's book "A Little Matter of Genocide," in which he says the U.S. Army distributed blankets infected with smallpox to the Mandan Indians on the Upper Missouri River in 1837.
Yes that was proven to be false, the smallpox epedimic among the pilgrims giving them to the indians in the 1600 & 1700's was real and well documented by several pilgrims.
It is documented the Lord Amherst did too. They have the original correspondence on how and why they were plotting to do this. As for Churchill he was a phony and proved to be. He was dismissed from a tenured position for lying and plagiarism. He claimed to be an American Indian citizen which in fact he was not. A wannabe exposed for what he was and is.
I am all for US, the us govt assisting the NA population any way we see fit.If they want schools made from the finest marble and stained glass,whatever.It IS a national tragedy that they live in deplorable conditions,it is also a tragedy that our govt starts wars,that we borrow from the chinese,and the government does not do one of its' basic tasks,defend the citizens-defend the borders.Let's retroactively get rid of all illegals,AND their children long as say 15 years.Let's give that money to tribes,that oughta square things.
Let's see if I got this. Hate speech both sides......check. Inaccuracies of historical facts both sides......check. I think I will just not get in the middle of this one.
gtouch,
Actually, I am on neither side, but I encourage you to always check accuracies. If for no other reason so you know if it is true or not and are not in return spreading false information. The internet makes it easy to verify, so use it.
Ya, you do seem kind of neutral.
The US government should be ashamed of itself for the attempted genocide of this group of people, the only true Americans. The republican controlled congress is once again attempting the genocide of a group of people, the middle class. You would think the government would not let history repeat itself but it is well on its way to do just that. Isn't democracy great? How much justice can you afford today.
What f%*k**g planet are you from?