History and
Healing
Note
In this article, I'm not necessarily taking sides. I'm just exploring the forces in play. Still, lessons can be learned.Coming to Grips with a Flawed Legacy
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
is a book, published in 1970, written by Dee Brown, detailing the violent relationship between Native Americans and American expansionism.
I just saw the HBO miniseries based on the book, also entitled Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
There has been the usual criticism of such an enormous undertaking, which attempted to boil down this history of two cultures in conflict into a few moments and characters.
However, I give high marks to the miniseries. It's ridiculous to criticize it as an oversimplification, when it had to be made simple in order to be watchable. The same can be said of Roots, Pearl Harbor, or Flags of Our Fathers. Besides, I did not find this HBO special to be overly simplified. In fact, it attempts to present the complexity of the situation and the conflicts.
The Usual Liberal Interpretation of History
is: white Europeans are the evil monsters of the universe and the cause of all ills in the world.Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
did not take this easy path, as it very well could have. The Indians were not presented as saints, nor their culture as the pristine ideal. Whites were not depicted as uncomplicated evil. There were men and women on both sides who were sincerely interested in the welfare of the Indians, and working, if naively, towards this goal.Reality
Both sides bear some blame for what happened to Native Americans; and both sides are innocent.The Indians themselves were warlike and expansionist, killing and conquering each other for land and bounty. The Europeans, though, just did this better than anyone. They developed the art of war to its highest form, and backed it up with a religious belief in the superiority of their God and Manifest Destiny.
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The liberal ideal now would be for the Europeans to have resisted building a country in America. The Europeans just should have left America in its pristine condition, without railroads and industry, and without the principles of land ownership and capitalism.
No matter how wonderful Indian culture was, and is, this could never have happened. There are forces bigger than any culture. The human race was meant to explore, expand, grow, and develop. This can't be stopped.
Manifest Destiny
If it isn't Manifest Destiny, it is what led natives from Tahiti to paddle to Hawaii 1000 years ago and impose their rule on the natives.Liberal Mindset
Because they weren't white Europeans, though, these Tahitians are not called evil.Property Rights
I realize that there are legal questions that do involve broken promises and the theft of lands, and so on. Yet, according to Indian history, they themselves did not have the concept of property rights. How do you reconcile a culture with no property rights and one that has property rights, when speaking about a specific plot of land?
Our courts have spoken, granting Indians the return of some lands, and compensation for other lands "taken." Plus, there is the casino thing.
The First Welfare State
One of the tragedies, though, for America and for its Native Americans, was the creation of the first welfare state. Well-meaning liberals of the time designed the reservation system, in order to be "good" to the Indians and give them their food, clothing, and lodging. It was the first paternalistic government program, and it included all the liberal philosophies. The government knew best what was good for the Indians. They should have Christian names, worship the Christian God, study Christian history and so on.
Gambling on the Future
The only turnaround for Indians in their post 19th century history has been the granting of unregulated casinos on their lands. This was not welfare. It is capitalism, and it is working for several tribes.
The Natural Forces
Whatever happens now, we must realize that solutions must be founded on the natural tides of history. We cannot turn back the clock. Even if we could, would the world be better off today if America was left in its former pristine state? No railroads, no industry, no property rights? What if the Europeans had been saints, and, while still creating a European system in America, had resisted the urge to "steal" lands? Well, and this must be emphasized again, then America could not have developed as it has.
It's not the "evil" Europeans that moved the human race forward. It's the nature of man himself/herself. The industrialization of America was going to happen.
Our Legacy
Though perhaps unjust and unfair, the Indian ideal remains with us in the thousands of acres of land in America granted to no one, owned by no one, earmarked as natural preserves. These lands are open to all. So, industrialization has occurred, and the preservation of pristine land has occurred.
The specific plots of land, though, that the Indians claimed as their natural homelands—were taken earlier from other Indians, by Indians. In the end, the game of musical chairs ended, and the Europeans landed on these lands, and crystallized the endgame into law.
Now, militaristic expansionism is no longer tolerated. Indians will no longer be invading new territories and claiming them for themselves. And Europeans have given up their imperialistic empire.
The Next Natural Tide
What is the next "tide of nature"? I suspect it's immigration, the burgeoning birth rate of Hispanics, and the browning of America. Now that the rule of law is in place, genocides won't work anymore. What is Nature telling us now? Expansionism is happening under the aegis of democracy. One force of Nature is the large Hispanic family, buttressed by Catholicism, supported by Hispanic culture. One political force is American liberalism, which wants all the Hispanics alive to immigrate to the United States, and for them to be fruitful and multiply. An opposing force is some on the conservative side, who want to preserve America as a diverse country, but with one language and culture.
Disappearing Diversity
Oddly, since America will one day be predominantly Hispanic, our diversity is disappearing.click to hide most of this post
The Lessons of the Indian Conflict
No one can't get in the way of the nature of mankind.
Expansionism will occur, one way or another.
Solutions to the human misery caused by dislocations must be in sync with natural forces.
The welfare state doesn't work. Capitalism does.The law is mankind's best attempt to be fair.
Violence will occur, and sometimes unfairly.
Part of this is because there are forces of nature bigger than the individuals or cultures involved. Then, though, after the violence, men and women must try to make sense of it all, and bring some fairness and compassion into the equation. The human race must do the best it can to balance the forces of nature with its natural inner yearning for fairness and compassion.Relavance to Our Present Dilemma
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee shows the complexities of these issues. We must revisit these conundrums now in our handling of illegal immigration matters.Rock
(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)
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There has been war since the dawn of man, prior to that the big killed and ate the small, there is no end to it.
ReplyDeleteYou said it Sarge. Too bad, but that's the way it is.
ReplyDeleteRock