Peace and War: Native Ground

Native American tribes have been shamefully misused and abused by settlers, colonists, thugs, and others.

In spite of this history of painful and tragic mistreatment, people survive.

And it’s time to set things right.

The American Indian Movement and other tribal collectives are working with everyday people
to restore peace, justice & freedom.

http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/nativeamericanportal

Native Americans have the highest mortality rate of any U.S. minority because of U.S. action and policy. The biggest killers were smallpox, measles, influenza, whooping cough, diphtheria, typhus, bubonic plague, cholera, and scarlet fever. All of these were imported by Europeans colonists and often used as tools of war. 

Other murders and mayhem took place, above and beyond these deaths. These wars on indigenous Americans are the most  horrific consequence of the European invasion, occupation, and exploitation.

Studies have been conducted that attempt to explain how many native people in the Americas were killed by colonists, settlers, racists and the US military. 

Independent  researchers have estimated indigenous populations and population reductions using documented census data and the most accurate objective records.

Two figures are given, both low and high: between 10 million and 114 million Indians died as a direct result of American actions. (Some by directed violence and many by imported disease and the proactive spreading of these diseases)

Note:  Given the fragmentary nature of the evidence, even semi-accurate pre-Columbian population figures are impossible to obtain. Estimates are made by extrapolations from small bits of data. In 1976, geographer William Denevan used the existing estimates to derive a “consensus count” of about 54 million people. If this is accurate, then more than 50 million died from disease, murder, war, hunger, or other causes.

Note that Nazi Holocaust estimates are between 6 and 11 million; thereby making the Nazi regime responsible for the 2nd largest mass murder of a class of people in history.

REF:  American Holocaust: D. Stannard (Oxford Press, 1992) – “over 100 million killed”

“One could reasonably argue that the Turkish pogrom against the Armenians during World War I qualifies as a crime against humanity, as does the United States’ ethnic cleansing of Native Americans.”
!Sebastian Junger

The time has come for peace, justice, and liberation.

 

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Indigenous people under siege worldwide – The Portland Alliance