Follow-up to the effects of capitalism on Native peoples

I am writing in response to Myself’s comment sent regarding the posting by Angelique EagleWoman on capitalism and the survival of Tribal Nations.

Because this post is a long and, I hope, informative, one, I have decided to put it here rather than in the comments section of the previous post. Hope you can hang in there with me.

I am no scholar, neither am I a historian and it is going to be difficult to synopsize hundreds of years of history, and thousands of atrocities into a few words. I will do my best. If I fail, I apologize and hope that you will be encouraged to undertake your own discovery. Books that can launch you on this path are listed below.

I must begin by saying that I do not at all agree with the notion that “the underlying cause of the mistreatment of indigenous peoples was a lack of understanding or familiarity with their culture, rather than a skewed or inferior belief system.”

Let’s look at some facts and examples.

1) In the U.S., Native genocide was government policy.

2) In Canada, the policy was assimilation and, if that didn’t work, hopefully disease and starvation would do the trick. There were instances when genocide was allowed, although the British government was uncomfortable with it.

(I am completely unfamiliar with Mexico’s history and for that, I apologize. If anyone would like to offer something to fill this gap, I would appreciate it.)

However, long before governments were in place Europeans slaughtered innocents for the sake of treasure.

Let’s start with Columbus for there could have been no possibility of any misunderstanding to have formed before he arrived.

When Columbus landed, he wrote to the King and Queen of Spain: “So tractable, so peaceable, are these people that I swear to your Majesties there is not in the world a better nation. They love their neighbours as themselves, and their discourse is ever sweet and gentle, and accompanied with a smile; and though it is true that they are naked, yet their manners are decorous and praiseworthy.”

In return, Columbus insisted that the people should be “made to work, sow and do all that is necessary to adopt our ways.”

While the Arawaks didn’t mind Christianity, they weren’t keen on the immigrants destroying their land in search of gold. When they resisted, Columbus began looting and burning villages, kidnapping hundreds of men, women and children and shipping them out as slaves.

That is an example of lives for gold, not a misunderstanding of culture.
Let’s skip ahead to 1829 when Andrew Jackson – nicknamed Sharp Knife, no doubt for the thousands of Natives he and his troops had slain – took office. Jackson believed that whites and Natives could not live together. Despite treaties that already guaranteed established Tribal lands, he decreed that tribes should be moved west of the Mississippi “to be guaranteed to the Indian tribes, as long as they shall occupy it.” On May 28, 1830, this became law. But, ooops, before it could be enacted, white settlers had already begun moving west.

The “permanent Indian frontier” therefore had to be moved from the Mississippi to the 95th meridian. But then war came and the U.S. won the land stretching from Texas to California and, guess what? It was behind the permanent Indian frontier.

And then gold was discovered. Where? Behind the permanent Indian frontier.

And on it went.

It is difficult to pick only one instance of the genocide that has been visited upon Native peoples, however, the Sand Creek Massacre is one that is particularly heinous.

Chief Black Kettle of the Cheyenne considered himself to be a friend to whites. He had met President Lincoln and been given an American flag by Colonel Greenwood who told him that: “as long as that flag flew above him, no soldiers would ever fire upon him.”

Black Kettle always flew those Stars-and-Stripes. And it was no small thing either. It was a large, garrison-sized flag. Sadly, Black Kettle hadn’t yet heard of Colonel Chivington whose orders to his troops were: “to kill Cheyennes whenever and wherever found.”

As agreed, Black Kettle and his people settled at Sand Creek. They were assured by Chivington that they would be under the protection of Fort Lyon. The Colonel then made ready to attack.

To be sure, there were soldiers who were unwilling to join in. To them Chivington said: “I have come to kill Indians, and believe it is right and honourable to use any means under God’s heaven to kill Indians.” (Some soldiers did not fire when the command was given.)

As Chivington had given the tribe permission to go on a hunting expedition [permission to hunt on their own lands!] there were mostly women and children in the camp when the attack began at sunrise. Members of the tribe awoke in panic; Black Kettle assembled everyone he could under the American flag attached to a long pole that he held. He told his people not to be afraid; the soldiers wouldn’t hurt them.

What happened next is beyond description. Men, women and children (some waving white flags) were shot, scalped, dismembered and left to die. Only soldiers’ hangovers and poor aim allowed some of the Cheyenne to escape. Women had babies cut from their stomachs and soldiers cut off mens’ and womens’ privates to stretch and dry and wear as trophies.

This didn’t happen because of any misunderstanding. It happened because whites wanted land, game and resources.
Let me give a few examples of greed from my own country.

Have you ever heard of the Beothuk? I suspect not. Few have. These non-warring people have all been slaughtered because of the early Newfoundland fishing industry. They were considered a nuisance.

“… Before European discovery… Native Nations participated in a diverse range of activities for hundreds of years, without interruption.”

To the Mi’ kmaq of Nova Scotia fish was a dietary staple. Hardly surprising as our province is surrounding on three sides by water. By the 1500’s the European fishery was in high swing yet, because of the hostile relations between the Natives and the Europeans, to fish meant taking ones life in one’s hands for the Mi’ kmaq. It became so bad that many Mi’ kmaq began dying of starvation. Surrounded by food, yet they starved. Native fishers were excluded from a livelihood they had always participated in. These rights were finally recognized by the Supreme Court of Canada in 1999.

Again, this wasn’t a cultural misunderstanding. It took 400 years for the government to recognize that the Mi’ kmaq were allowed to participate in an industry where they had excelled until the time of contact.

Let’s take a look at education of First Nations peoples and the economy in Canada.

“As early as 1897, one politician summarized the prevalent thinking in Ottawa: ‘We are educating these Native people to compete industrially with our own people, which seems to me a very undesirable use of public money...”

Clifford Sifton, the superintendent-general of Indian Affairs from 1896 to 1905 decided that: “the government should shift its focus so that it trained Native students in how to make a living on their reserves instead of in competition with non-Natives.”

“Clearly Indian Affairs and most of the schoolteachers never envisaged that Native students would find a place in Canadian society as equals to whites. Before the wave of immigration at the turn of the [20th] century, Native youngsters were trained to be domestic and unskilled labour. As immigrants became available for these jobs, the government scrapped this meagre educational goal for Aboriginal children in favour of ghettoizing them on reserves at the peripheries of the economy.”

I could go on, but it’s getting late and I am completely disheartened.

If it’s important to know the whys of what we’ve done, then let’s not fool ourselves with gentle imaginings.

Instead, let’s educate ourselves, demand more of our political and community leaders and do better.

Colleen

Information quoted here on U.S. history comes from Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee – a wonderful book using government documents as historical basis.

Canadian info is from I Have Lived here Since the World Began, by historian Arthur J. Ray.

The quote about existing Native nations is from Clint Davis and can be found at: http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/leadership/compass/2001/index.php?itemid=576