White People's Logic

After putting this blog online, I contacted several people and asked them to participate in helping to relieve the ongoing anger and resentment some First Nation people still harbor toward the white man. This was one of the reasons I created this blog originally. I hoped it could become a part of the healing. I hoped it would help heal the sour margins of our co-existence. To know, after watching First Nations and looking more deeply into the history, the TRUE history, I felt compelled to do something to help mend what some terrible people did to those who FIRST inhabited this land. Others apparently do not feel the need. They say it wasn't them who committed the atrocities and therefore they feel no need to "apologize" to the peoples of the First Nations. In their "Christian" way of life, they cannot manage to find a grain of real pity, at least not enough to make them lift a finger to paper. It was a long time ago and had nothing to do with me, they say. Oh, they think it's sad, but they don't feel any responsibility regarding the actions taking against the First Nations, and of course, THEY would never NEVER has done such things. They say the First Nations just need to get over it and get on with life.

I ask, "Don't you think if a million white people expressed their sorrow and despair and regret over what our ancestors did to them, don't you think that could be a new beginning, an aid in healing the hearts of the broken." Response, "I just don't feel like you do about it. I don't feel that I should have to apologize."

WOW, I didn't realize how full of pride we white folk really are. I didn't really realize that it was a huge deal to ask someone to put together a few sentences of regret that might help the people whose land we robbed, whose people we slaughtered. I didn't think my own blood, those with apparent hearts of gold, would "not feel like me", not be so ashamed and disheartened to see that our ancestors were no better than the Chinese with the Tibetans, Hitler with the Jews, or any of the other conquerors who regard humans who are not like them, as worthless vermin to torture, rob, rape, abuse, and murder. With such pride, such a false sense of innocence, I understand why history repeats itself. Skip a generation and everyone conveniently forgets the suffering, at least the suffering done to others. It gets old, it gets swept under the carpet as the conquerors and their descendants enjoy the fruits of their looting, it becomes history to read about in books. Read about in books, the facts seem ancient, unchangeable, even when many victims are still living with the consequences of their horrors that were perpetrated against innocent people.

Many victims still live. Victims of the German Holocaust, of the Rwanda Racial Cleansing, of the First Nations Genocide. I find it odd that Germans I know have expressed their sincere regrets over the burning of the Jews, and while Americans point their fingers at the Germans, at the Rwandans, at the Chinese, it never even passes over our minds that the biggest of all genocides took place right here on the American continent as our "Christian, God-fearing, free-religion seekers, found good excuses to steal, pillage, rape and massacre the people who lived FIRST on this land. We never even give it a thought. We just believe what we were taught. Columbus discovered a new world and the pilgrims settled it in search of a land free of religious persecution. We remember the Indians and the pilgrims enjoying their first Thanksgiving together, we forget that white settlers slaughtered millions upon millions of First Nation peoples in order to take what they wanted. Fine, we have what our ancestors wanted, we have all the best land, we enjoy being Americans. BUT IT WASN'T FREE. IT CAME AT THE COST OF 100 MILLION FIRST NATION HUMAN BEINGS, people who loved their land and their traditions and their religion just as the settlers did. In my opinion, their was another way to go about using some of this land, but it would have required honesty, integrity, virtue, uprightness, compassion and decency, all those "Christian" values this country claims to stand for. It is completely disgusting to realize what brutes our ancestors were and how they systematically went about obliterating the Indian race from this land for their own benefit. It's nauseating, at least for me. How other white people can not grip this truth is beyond me, how they cannot apologize for some facet of the wrong is beyond my comprehension. Without sorrow, without soft hearts, without compassion, without acknowledgment of the horribly wrong doings, these things will happen again. And it may very well happen to white people, or white people of a certain religion, or white people who own guns, or white people who are patriots, but it will happen. Then...who will be sorry? Apparently only those who suffer are sorry. Those who win and take and get and survive well BECAUSE of the suffering of others, don't seem to mind at all. Everyone just goes on living in constant denial. It's the American way!

PRIDE IN YOUR WAY?

It's interesting that I have asked several people, including my own adult children, to compose an apology to the First Nations of the American Continent for the grossest atrocity, the biggest genocidal incident in the entire history of mankind, yet still no apologies are forth coming.

COMPASSION? MERCY? LOVE? PEACE ON EARTH TO ALL MEN? LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF?

Do WE, of European ancestry, who have all this innocent blood on our hands, or should I say IN the earth of "our" lands, feel that we have no reason to apologize because we didn't commit the acts of violence with our own hands? Are we really just too proud of the country we now call our own, we just can't truly admit that it wasn't really a "new world" that Columbus discovered, it's easier just to close our eyes and pretend it didn't happen because it isn't affecting US at this moment? Or maybe we are afraid we'll have to give something back if we admit the wrong. Maybe we are afraid of reality. Many of us are living in denial from day to day anyway, about lots of things in our lives that would make us uncomfortable if we faced them square on, maybe it's in our genes to do rotten things to people or allow them to do them to us, and just ignore it, pretend it isn't so bad, let it drift away into our busy lives.

Facing reality takes guts. Seeing things for what they REALLY are takes real courage. Acting upon reality, taking a stand, having honor, or apologizing for something our ancestors did to another group of people so we could have what we have now, takes people with eyes to see and hearts to feel. I'm not so sure how much heart is left us. Our ancestors were murderers. Those who weren't physically involved none-the-less did nothing to stop the tragedy. Justified by obtain and possess, justified by greed and selfishness, justified by a RELIGION that made any non-Christian a non-human being, good only as a slave or to be killed, all our pretty pilgrims can't possibly be butchers! They believed the lies and propaganda and hardened their hearts to the slaughter, rape, smallpox genocide of children, and the theft of almost all the land that belonged to another people. The hearts grew cold. We inherited those genes. If we cannot see how cold-hearted we have become, it's because we don't have eyes to see or ears to hear or hearts that feel.

An apology on this blog is the little effort we can make to alleviate the suffering of other human beings who suffered under the hands of our ancestors. Maybe if you'll take a little time from your busy schedule to THINK about these things and spend a few minutes of your life to write an apology from your heart, maybe your heart will be healed in the process. Maybe the process of the effort will create a closer identification with the suffering of others and increase compassion in this cold world. I can only offer you the vehicle. You need to make this a priority or not. I cannot do it for you.

On behalf of all First Nation peoples, I again ask you to share your sorrow, your feelings and your apology. Thank you.

HOW TO POST A COMMENT OR APOLOGY

PLEASE LOOK UNDER EACH POST. IN VERY SMALL PRINT, AND I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER THIS, THERE IS THE WORD 'COMMENT'. IN FRONT OF THAT WORD IS A NUMBER SPECIFYING THE NUMBER OF COMMENTS ON THAT PARTICULAR POST. CHOOSE A POST AND LEAVE YOUR COMMENT, OR LOOK FOR THE 'APOLOGY' POST, THE FIRST ONE ON THE LIST - AT THE BOTTOM, AND OPEN IT AND POST YOUR APOLOGY THERE. THAT WOULD BE GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THANKS SO MUCH FOR SHARING YOUR HEARTS AND COMPASSION.
WHITE MORNINGSTAR

WHITE BUFFALO - PLEASE SIGN PETITION

The White Buffalo Prophecy tells of a time when a white buffalo calf would be born, and that birth would signal a time of Great Healing for All Nations. That white buffalo calf - the first of many - was born in Janesville, Wisconsin in 1994. Her name was Miracle.

The birth of a White Buffalo is a rare event. It occurs as the result of a recessive mutation that leaves the hair follicles without the dark pigment melanin.

Due to the remarkable appearance and rarity over the centuries, a White Buffalo became a powerful spirit in First Nation's plain cultures.

The legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman tells of a Great spirit appearing as a beautiful young woman, dressed in white buckskin, who presented a sacred pipe and knowledge as gifts to the Lakota People. On leaving the village, she turned into a White Buffalo Calf.

It is in the spirit of the White Bison Prophecy, that we call upon all peoples to join us in signing this petition supporting a US apology and healing for the widespread abuse of Native American children at the nearly 500 schools funded by the US government to assimilate Native.

PLEASE GO TO THIS WEBSITE AND SIGH THE PETITION
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/Apology-For-Indian-School-Abuses

Magnificiently beautiful FIRST NATION MEN VIDEO!

I think you'll love this song while you're appreciating the magnificent beauty of these Indian Nation men. It breaks my heart to think of how many of these great human beings were destroyed needlessly and mercilessly. I'm so thankful we still have some of their culture and peoples among us. Enjoy!

American Indian slaves

Scholars long have known about the Indian slave trade, but the scattered nature of the sources deterred a systematic examination. Slavery was not unique to Europeans. Sadly, the institution of slavery is about as old as humanity. As for me, I come here to apologize to all slaves of all nations during all time frames of human existence, but specifically to our American Indian First Nation brothers and sisters. i apologize because there is nothing else I can do to set the wrong right. Someday, someway I hope their tears and angry will dry and go away. Meantime, I do my part by asking those of you who read this sentence, to offer up your own words of regret for the past actions of peoples who obviously did not think like we do today. Perhaps, in a few ways, the world is getting a little better. Maybe it is because the Dalai Lama has reminded us that first and foremost we are all ONE HUMAN FAMILY.

More on American Indian Slavery

No one had any conception of the trade's massive extent and that it played such a central role in the lives of early Americans and in the colonial economy.

Indian slavery complicates the narrative we have created of a white-black world, with Indians residing outside on a vaguely defined frontier. The Indian slave trade connects native and European history, so that plantations and Indian communities become entwined. We find planters making more money from slave trading than planting, and if we look more closely we find Indians not only enslaved on plantations but working as police forces to maintain those plantations and receiving substantial rewards for returning runaway slaves.

We are also learning a great deal more about American-Indian peoples. Most importantly we can now tell the stories - the tragedies - that befell so many who were killed in slaving wars or spent their days as slaves far from their homes. They and their peoples have been largely forgotten. The Natchez, Westo, Yamasee, Euchee, Yazoo and Tawasa are among the dozens of Indian peoples who fell victims to the slaving wars, with the survivors forced to join other native communities. These are tales that Indians themselves have not told: Just as the story of Indian slavery was excluded from the European past, it was largely forgotten (like a horrible nightmare no one wants to remember or talk about) in American-Indian traditions.

_______________________________Reference Book for a detailed study
The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717 | Book Reviews
Published by EH.NET (April 2003)

Alan Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002. xviii + 444 pp. $45.00 (hardcover), ISBN: 0-300-08754-3.

Reviewed for EH.NET by Peter C. Mancall, Department of History, University of Southern California.

It comes as no surprise to state that slavery was a crucial part of the economy of the southeastern colonies of British North America. As historians and economists have long recognized, the enslavement of Africans imported from Africa or the West Indies was crucial for the development of plantation agriculture in the region. By 1708 individuals of African descent amounted to approximately one-half of the population of South Carolina, and by 1720 or so their numbers constituted two-thirds of the population. Their presence gave this region a unique demographic profile in the British North American colonies. That story, told brilliantly by the historian Peter Wood in his classic study from 1974 entitled Black Majority, has dominated scholars' understanding of forced labor in this area.

Allan Gallay, a professor of history at Western Washington University, has now complicated this narrative. During the same decades that Carolina became a stable province, its colonists looked to Native Americans to provide labor for them. Often this labor was coerced by nothing more than the lure of the market itself: Native Americans hunted whitetail deer for colonists or offered food to them in exchange for manufactured goods from Europe. But this free labor was not sufficient to satisfy colonists, who needed people to produce crops for export. English colonists recognized that selling captured Indians was doubly beneficial. By exporting captives to other parts of the Atlantic basin as slaves, Carolinians made a profit and removed individuals and groups who might have stood in the way of colonial expansion into the interior.

Gallay's book is more than a history of efforts by British (and other European) colonists to enslave and sell Native Americans and then, eventually, to bring that noxious commerce to its end. In fact, the vast majority of the book has little to do with the Indian slave trade itself. What Gallay offers here is a thorough, up-to-date, readable and engaging history of Carolina -- and much of the old southeast -- from approximately 1670 to 1717. There is much here on diplomacy and debates between colonists, including many details that reveal how difficult it was for Carolina's proprietors to maintain order in the nascent colony. Gallay's real insights about the local slave trade are primarily confined to the penultimate chapter in the book.

Yet the fact that Gallay, as the journalists' phrase has it, has buried his lead should not put off economists and historians who want to understand the colonial southeast. Quite the contrary: Gallay's mastery of the primary and secondary source literature provides readers with abundant information about crucial colonial politicians, traders, and missionaries. He makes readers realize that it is irresponsible to lump all Native peoples together under the heading "Indian." Some of those Native peoples, captured in war and sold into bondage, ended their lives far from their ancestral homes. Others, also Native, were crucial players in this trade, a part of the story that echoes John Thornton's analysis of the participation of some Africans in the Atlantic slave trade (see his Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400-1800, second edition, Cambridge University Press, 1998). Gallay provides a series of maps of the entire southeast, a great service to the many readers who will not know the location of particular indigenous nations. He shows where Indian slaves went and extracts valuable clues from the writings of perceptive observers and from legal codes -- some of them the product of northern colonists who came to fear southern Indian slaves and sought to prevent their continued importation. He recognizes the crucial role of conflict, especially the devastations of the Yamasee War that raged from 1714 to 1717. Further, Gallay writes with a sense of urgency that should be welcomed by readers who have grown tired of reading lightly revised dissertations that would have made better articles than full-length books.

Still, the part of the book that will be of most interest to economic historians will be the chapter in which Gallay provides some estimates for the number of Native American slaves. Gallay claims that "the drive to control Indian labor -- which extended to every nook and cranny of the South -- was inextricably connected to the growth of the plantations and that the trade in Indian slaves was at the center of the English empire's development in the American South. The trade in Indian slaves was the most important factor affecting the South in the period 1670 to 1715: its impact was felt from Arkansas to the Carolinas and south to the Florida Keys" (p. 7). He adds that the "Indian slave trade provided the strongest link between the South's many peoples in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries" (p. 9). These are bold claims that can only be supported by careful demonstration of the ways that the Indian slave trade worked and some quantitative evidence revealing the actual number of individuals captured and sold for their labor.

To his substantial credit, Gallay shows how the business operated and he makes a valiant effort to estimate the number of individuals enslaved. The evidence enables him to describe how individuals and even groups became ensnared. But it is less useful as a source for quantitative measures for the entire Indian slave trade. The most important numbers appear in a single table (on p. 299). Here Gallay carefully separates the number of slaves from various places or indigenous nations and estimates that from 1670 to 1715 there were between 24,000 and 51,000 Natives enslaved in the entire "South." The region includes Florida, which lost the most individuals to slavery, through the southeast to the lower Mississippi Valley. There were significant differences between the trade in Native slaves and the African slave trade. Gallay believes that the commerce in Indian bodies and labor "was akin more to the resale of Africans from the West Indies than to the African slave trade" (p. 314). But despite the differences in terms of final destinations and the scale of the trade, Gallay recognizes that slavery in this period in the Americas meant the same for Africans and Native Americans: "removal from their homes, denial of their rights and basic humanity, subjection to lifelong servitude, and the passage of slave status from mother to child" (p. 314).

The trade in Native slaves came to an end when colonists devoted more of their efforts to purchasing Africans. By the end of the 1710s the British came to realize that the capture and sale of Indian slaves was more difficult for them than participating in the transatlantic African slave trade. The enslavement of Indians was also a problem for the Spanish and French in the region. Yet though Gallay describes these other Europeans' attitudes towards the taking of captives and the use of forced labor, in the end this is primarily a book about the British and their ability to overcome internal divisions, ignore their earlier claims that they would avoid mistreating Indians, and embrace a system of labor exploitation that sent Native men, women, and children far from their homes. Later scholars might be able to provide more accurate measures of the scale of the trade, but Gallay's work will remain crucial for anyone who wants to know how the various peoples of the South interacted in the colonial period.

Peter C. Mancall, Professor of History at the University of Southern California and the President, from 2002 to 2004, of the Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction, is the author (with Eric Hinderaker) of At the Edge of Empire:

SLAVES - Native Indians & African - Christian justifications

Few people realize that thousands if not millions of native peoples were forced into slavery. In my wildest imagination I cannot fathom how proclaimed Christians, persecuted themselves for their religious beliefs, wanting to find a place of freedom for themselves, can come to a land where other people have lived for thousands of years, and after accepting their help, then brutalize them, steal every stinking piece of decent land, rape, torture, kill all their buffalo, break all treaties made with them, and take their population from 100 million to one thousand in the largest genocide on the planet. So I went out on the internet to see what I could find, to see if there was some sort of explanation, some sort of decent excuse, but this is what I found.

The same thing that has been going on for 6000 years; interpreting written scripture from the Bible to fit your greedy desires! Whether its the Bible or the Koran or any
other book of "scripture" people with ulterior, less than "Christian" motives manage to twist the meaning, the definition to suit the moment at hand. Which is why more human beings have died in the name of religion than all the world wars put together. These genocides, these holocausts never end. ManKIND is just not very kind indeed!