“In the fifteen hundreds, the American Indian population in North America has been estimated at approximately twelve million, but by the early nineteen hundreds, the population had been reduced to roughly four hundred and seventy-four thousand. It is impossible to arrive at a number for the millions of American Indians killed during this period by European diseases with smallpox the deadliest by far.

Smallpox reached what was to become the United States either from Canada or the West Indies. The first major outbreak of an infectious disease recorded on the northeastern Atlantic coast was 1616-19. The Massachusetts and other Algonquin tribes in the area were reduced from an estimated thirty thousand to three hundred (Bray). When the Pilgrims landed a year later in 1620, there was few Indians left to greet them. Many observers believe this infectious disease was smallpox.

By the end of the sixteen hundreds, smallpox had spread up and down the eastern seaboard and as far west as the Great Lakes. Stearn and Stearn estimated there were approximately one million one hundred and fifty thousand Indians living north of the Rio Grande in the early sixteenth-century, but by 1907, there were less than four hundred thousand (Bray). This decline was not due to smallpox alone. Other diseases played a role, as did intertribal warfare and conflicts with the United States. ”
(copied and pasted from:
http://www.thefurtrapper.com/indian_smallpox.htm)

I was unaware that there were those who were attributing the spread of the disease to deliberate efforts to infect the indians. My understanding was that it was a problem in the very early settlements – as early as Plymouth Rock. Smallpox was endemic to the European population – vaccinations weren’t developed until 1790s(?). It would have caused a problem in the early settlements, but not nearly the problem it would cause the natives who had not been exposed to it.

Barak Obama won’t take military action against Iran off the table. (Hat Tip: Lew Rockwell) Homeland Stupidity notes that Cal Poly is destroying thousands of books to make room for a Starbucks, and has silenced a librarian for objecting. My

You are referring to a historical hatchet job perpetrated by Ward Churchill! Ward wrote that American soldiers gave blankets infected with smallpox to Indians. He even quoted his historical source. Only a small problem, the source has no such statement!

http://hal.lamar.edu/~browntf/Churchill1.htm

Read the article, as it does mention that British soldiers are believed to have used this practice after their commander had decided against it.

Don’t feel bad, I believed this drivel for years too.

Trey

Pretty soon the whole world will be apologizing to one another and we will just go around dazed and confused, not knowing how to refer to one another, apologizing to everybody “just in case” and

People – these politicians are only pandering to every group they can get their grubby vote hands on. We’re not that stupid congressmen/women! Do the job we’re paying you to do, including you, Sam “Amnesty” Brownback!

Do I get exempted for apologizing if 1) none of my ante-bellum ancestors who happened to be in the US (most were still in Europe) lived in Wisconsin and didn’t own slaves and 2) one of them was a Union soldier who died fighting in the Siege of Vicksburg?

I agree. Further, anyone born on this half of the planet is a native American, since “North”, “South”, and “Central” are all “America”.

In Canada, they use the term “Aboriginal Americans”, but anthropologists world over use the term “Amerinds”. The “Aboriginal” term the Canadians use is actually more accurate (it basically means, “My ancestors got here before yours did, but we didn’t evolve here, either”), but it can be confused with the Austrialian Aborigines, which, I think, is the reason anthropologists don’t use it.

But I’m with you, given that “Amerind” is nothing more than a contraction of “American Indian”.

2. Yes, many of us have moved to where work is, and so have they. For instance, the skyscrapers of NYC were built by Mohawks (who could work at those heights with no problem whatever) (and they made ‘bucks’, drove home to the tribe in their Caddies every weekend). However, guess what, all you Internet users: There’s another way now, Internet jobs. Like maybe the tribal council could work a deal with an airline for customer service. Yeah, they’d make less than for gambling and have to work for it, but I think that’s a good thing. (Also, we customers wouldn’t have to be trying to understand a South Asian accent.)

I won’t apologize, because I didn’t do it. I am sorry it happened though, it is a stain on England’s history. We were not taught the facts in school either, as usual. I finally caught up with Ireland wile travelling in County Cork, and found a lot of reading material in a cottage I rented.

Any apology by a representative government for a past injustic visited on a people, especially massacre and land theft, is a good, mature, and noble thing. All dying traits in an increasingly egotistical, greedy, untruthful, polarizing World.

Hunter-gatherer populations….ok. There was a problem of cultural dissimilarity…those hunter-gatherer populations made the assumption that nobody “owned” the land – they just used it. The European culture believed in land ownership. Big problem. Some europeans apparently were able to own land and compromise by allowing indians hunting rights. Obviously, many did not. Indians didn’t respect the ownership of animals grazed on the land – they poached, considering it their right since it was on their hunting grounds. There simply was going to be a problem eventually unless the Europeans just cleared out.

As for the breaking deals – the indians apparently did their share as well. As I understand it, the problem was one of the US government making deals with persons they considered the “chief” who had the right to make deals for all the indians in a group, when in fact, the indians didn’t recognize such a right and didn’t consider themselves bound by such agreements. Cultural problems again.

When two cultures clash, one will attain superiority. In this case, the European one did. Would you have it otherwise? Oh yeah…and the indians took slaves as well. As is noted by the Seminole Council. They are not only admitting they had slaves, not apologizing for it, but are even further disowning those slaves and their descendants. How politically incorrect!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that the state of Virginia officially apologized for slavery. I said it was pointless because:
1) It changes nothing, and will satisfy no one. Slavery still happene…

Darn right, I do. They too are joyless people who are stuck in reverse and can’t find the road ahead.

Being a fool, blinded by some distant history is chump work. Getting your hind-parts in forward motion takes determination.

When the rednecks rise again and restore the glory days of the Confederate States of America, I will change my tune. (Meanwhile, I stay out of their bars and I don’t scratch their pick-em-ups. I also don’t mix it up with Al Sharpton’s fan club. My momma didn’t raise no stupid children.)

That’s a good idea. Too quick on the draw.

Dear Mrs. Hanley,

I apologize that the as of yet non-existent American government failed to protect your ancestors from a raid of the indigenous people where they were perhaps unlawfully (by today’s standards) placed in order to establish a settlement in this nation. I apologize that the non-existent American government did nothing to help the two surviving children who then had to rely on other indigenous people to walk from Virginia to Ohio, where they were cared for by an uncle.

I apologize that, due to the color of your skin, you have been continually implicated in injustices done against at least two races of people, although there is no documented evidence that any of your relatives actually participated in any of these injustices.

Sincerely, whoever.

OK, all forgiven. Can we get on with something that means something?