Turkey Recalls Ambassador Over Genocide Resolution

[Don Corleone]

Don C, I would humbly ask you to at least read this post. I tried to lay out the entire four-hundred-year history of European/Native American conflict. FWIW, the smallpox blanket stunt was performed by the British, not the colonial authorities. And FWIW, it probably had no effect.

In my opinion, the bulk of the killing was done before the United States properly existed. That's no excuse for how the U.S. behaved afterwards, but it's worth understanding.

Right, I've had a chance to go back and read more of the thread and I hear what you and Xiahou are trying to say. I'm just struck by the hypocricy of it all. Okay, perhaps the smallpox blanket incident was technically the Brittish (which in 1763, we still were). I'm not a deconstructionist when it comes to history, and I don't think its fair to judge the acts of the 18th and 19th century by the moral standards of today. But come on... we didn't know that Wounded Knee was wrong? And we knew damn well the Trail of Tears incident and what we did to the Cherokees was wrong, even at the time. And how about poor old Chief Joseph and the Nez Perce? Having seen what happened to natives forced onto reservations, they just wanted to go to Canada and leave the US altogether. But nope, that wasn't good enough for us. We had to hunt him and the rest of the Nez Perce down and kill enough of them that the survivors surrendered and were willing to accept any terms allowed.

You can say 'it was complicated' and 'atrocities were committed by both sides', and you'd be somewhat right. But there were a few watershed events that transpired that shocked the sensibilities of white America of the day, let alone people trying to indulge in collective guilt now, and they were pretty much all us against them.