Post by Okwes on May 24, 2007 13:35:42 GMT -5
Native Americans misrepresented Editorial The New Hampshire
2/13/07 To the Editor,
My recent visit to the US Post Office in downtown Durham left me
outraged by the blatant misrepresentation of our early pioneer settlers.
Displayed upon the walls above the service counters is a mural that pays
tribute to the numerous positive traits our ancestors possessed that
enabled them to create a new life for us in America. But displayed among
them is a falsehood so great that it offends me and strikes sadness in
my heart. Depicted beside representations of our ingenuity and strength
is a painting of a Native American Indian preparing to torch the home of
the newly settled Europeans with the inscription "Cruel Adversity"
below. The insinuation that early European Americans suffered cruel
adversity at the hands of the native inhabitants is a tragic lie that
perpetuates the American historical myth of the friendly whites against
the merciless Indian savages.
While in fact, American pioneers were responsible for committing the
largest act of genocide in the history of the world, slaughtering and
enslaving 100 million Native Americans (compared to 6 million Jews in
the WWII Holocaust) within a century of Christopher Columbus' arrival in
the New World. In has been well documented that our young government
systematically removed the native people from their homes and tortured
or killed those who refused to cooperate. Government bounties were
advertised to encourage settlers to kill the native inhabitants and, in
one of our first acts of biological warfare, blankets infected with
small-pox were intentionally gifted to the Indians.
It is bad enough that we attempt to minimize these atrocities in our
history books. It is shameful and inexcusable to take any pride in the
actions of our white settlers that resulted in the murder of 95 percent
of the original Native American population.
Erin Baird
Newington, NH
2/13/07 To the Editor,
My recent visit to the US Post Office in downtown Durham left me
outraged by the blatant misrepresentation of our early pioneer settlers.
Displayed upon the walls above the service counters is a mural that pays
tribute to the numerous positive traits our ancestors possessed that
enabled them to create a new life for us in America. But displayed among
them is a falsehood so great that it offends me and strikes sadness in
my heart. Depicted beside representations of our ingenuity and strength
is a painting of a Native American Indian preparing to torch the home of
the newly settled Europeans with the inscription "Cruel Adversity"
below. The insinuation that early European Americans suffered cruel
adversity at the hands of the native inhabitants is a tragic lie that
perpetuates the American historical myth of the friendly whites against
the merciless Indian savages.
While in fact, American pioneers were responsible for committing the
largest act of genocide in the history of the world, slaughtering and
enslaving 100 million Native Americans (compared to 6 million Jews in
the WWII Holocaust) within a century of Christopher Columbus' arrival in
the New World. In has been well documented that our young government
systematically removed the native people from their homes and tortured
or killed those who refused to cooperate. Government bounties were
advertised to encourage settlers to kill the native inhabitants and, in
one of our first acts of biological warfare, blankets infected with
small-pox were intentionally gifted to the Indians.
It is bad enough that we attempt to minimize these atrocities in our
history books. It is shameful and inexcusable to take any pride in the
actions of our white settlers that resulted in the murder of 95 percent
of the original Native American population.
Erin Baird
Newington, NH