NATIVE AMERICANS

However, conflicts eventually arised. As a starter, the arriving Europeans seemed attuned to another world, they appeared to be oblivious to the rhythms and spirit of nature. Nature to the Europeans - and the Indians detected this - was something of an obstacle, even an enemy. It was also a commodity: A forest was so many board feet of timber, a beaver colony so many pelts, a herd of buffalo so many robes and tongues. Even the Indians themselves were a resource - souls ripe for the Jesuit, Dominican, or Puritan plucking (link to Junipero Serra).

It was the Europeans' cultural arrogance, coupled with their materialistic view of the land and its animal and plant beings, that the Indians found repellent. Europeans, in sum, were regarded as something mechanical - soulless creatures who wielded diabolically ingenious tools and weapons to accomplish mad ends.

The Europeans brought with them not only a desire and will to conquer the new continent for all its material richness, but they also brought with them diseases that hit the Indians hard. Conflicts developed between the Native Americans and the Invaders, the latter arriving in overwhelming numbers, as many "as the stars in heaven". The Europeans were accustomed to owning land and laid claim to it while they considered the Indians to be nomads with no interest in claiming land ownership. The conflicts led to the Indian Wars, the Indian Removal Act empowered by president Andrew Jackson in 1830 and other acts instituted by the Europeans in order to accomplish their objectives, as they viewed them at the time. In these wars the Indian tribes were at a great disadvantage because of their modest numbers, nomadic life, lack of advanced weapons, and unwillingness to cooperate, even in their own defense. (One of the few instances in opposition to this view may been seen in the Battle of the Greasy Grass, better known as Custer's Last Stand.)

The end of the wars more or less coincided with the end of the 19th century. The last major war was not really a war, it was a massacre in 1890 where Indian warriors, women, and children were slaughtered by U.S. cavalrymen at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in a final spasm of ferocity.

A stupefying record of greed and trechery, of heroism and pain, had come to an end, a record forever staining the immense history of the westward movement, which in its drama and tragedy is also distinctively and unforgettably American.

[The late Mr. Lindeblad, creator of AW writes:] Undersigned being an European emigrating to the U.S. during the latter part of the 20th century, cannot fully comprehend what happened during the past few centuries. I am sure many descendants of emigrants as well as many Native Americans feel the same way. We are all a product of our time and the circumstances prevalent at the time. If I had lived with the Europeans in America during the 19th century, would I have embraced what was going on then? If I had lived with the Germans in the 1930s and 40s, would I have embraced what was going on in Germany then? If I had lived in Scandinavia during medieval time witnessing the horrors of slavery and killings, would I have embraced what was going on then? (The Nordic countries practiced slavery - träldom - during the middle ages, a master could for any reason kill his slave. Abolished in 1335.)

These are hard questions for anyone to honestly answer. It is easy to toss around opinions now, at the end of the 20th century being conveniently removed from circumstances and conditions in a distant and foreign time.

This web-site will try to present as true and accurate a picture as possible of the past, but not dwell on it. However, it is important for one sole reason and that is to learn from the past and move into the 21st century as better human beings. After all, we are ONE people under God and we can only look back to the past as what it is - history. Now we attempt to cooperate to the best of our ability in the present and we are looking forward to the future for a better world. Let us once again cross the Bering land-bridge and sail the Mayflower, but this time together for the common goal of building up mutual respect and trust.