A different look at American history

For Christmas one of my sons gave me a book by Michael Medved, The 10 Big Lies about America. I want to share some of his chapters with you because he does an excellent job looking at misrepresentations of the historical record.

He starts with the idea that America was founded on genocide against Native Americans. Using the dictionary, Medved defines genocide as "the systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political or ethnic group." If there is no intent to slaughter, there is no genocide. What killed off most of the Native Americans? Infectious diseases like smallpox, measles, influenza, and typhus. Some critics of America tell of smallpox blankets used to infect unsuspecting tribes. But this rests solely on controversial interpretations of two unconnected and inconclusive incidents seventy-four years apart. That hardly suggests a consistent pattern of genocide covering roughly 400 years of white-Indian interaction.

But, the critics say, what about abundant examples of brutal episodes of warfare along the moving frontier? Were these one-sided horrors perpetrated by bloodthirsty whites against peaceful natives? Medved says these were, instead, fierce battles with casualties on both sides. Only one instance clearly involved rampaging white militia, and the U. S. Government unequivocally condemned this isolated incident. Medved focuses on one of those encounters -- the famous episode at Wounded Knee. A group of Indians fleeing from authorities who wanted to restrict them to a reservation surrendered to troops of the Seventh Cavalry. Several of the Indians had hidden rifles, and two soldiers started struggling with one Indian who had a rifle. The gun went off, resulting in five or six other warriors throwing off their blankets, producing rifles they had concealed, and beginning to fire directly toward the troop of soldiers. The fighting that followed was fierce with losses on both sides. It was a fight, not an unprovoked slaughter of unarmed innocents. The soldiers had brought artillery with them, but they did not use them on the Indians as they might have if they really had genocide in mind. On several occasions they actually tried to encourage the Indians to surrender, but the warriors chose to continue their struggle.

Thanks to recent movies, TV shows, and books, we have been led to believe North America was home to gentle, happy native societies before Columbus. But the truth is that the natives had an age-old tradition of fierce intertribal warfare. Cannibalism, mass human sacrifice, ritualized violence -- all were part of ancient Native American life.

Actually, the United States experience with Native Americans strongly resembled other encounters between people at vastly different stages of development. When members of more enhanced and dynamic societies encounter aboriginal peoples who belong to a much earlier era of human history, there is little doubt of the outcome.

Medved has several other eye-opening chapters in his book. I'll cover them in a later blog.