Today most of us look back at the white man's treatment of Native Americans with disgust and regret. Do you think the United States has matured to the point where something like this couldn't happen today?
Created: 08/22/18
Replies: 19
Join Date: 10/15/10
Posts: 3442
Today most of us look back at the white man's treatment of Native Americans with disgust and regret. Do you think the United States has matured to the point where something like this couldn't happen today?
Join Date: 04/21/11
Posts: 327
I would like to think so but, given today’s political environment I’m no longer sure. The difference, I hope, is that we are better educated and there are more people willing to stand up to injustices that something like this wouldn’t happen again
Join Date: 03/09/12
Posts: 29
I would hope not. It seems that there have always been uprisings of one kind or another from the beginning of time between different groups. As pertains to the Indians, as was stated "Life for the Indians indeed became impossible with the railroads and encroachment of settlers." Then of course the killing of the buffalo as a sport was limiting the food supply of the Native Americans.
Join Date: 03/09/12
Posts: 29
I would hope not. It seems that there have always been uprisings of one kind or another from the beginning of time between different groups. As pertains to the Indians, as was stated "Life for the Indians indeed became impossible with the railroads and encroachment of settlers." Then of course the killing of the buffalo as a sport was limiting the food supply of the Native Americans.
Join Date: 03/11/15
Posts: 120
I think the United States continues to treat Native Americans poorly. I would hope we would never again try to annihilate an entire group of people, but from some of the rhetoric I have heard lately, it makes me wonder. I would hope people would rise up and never, never let anything like this happen again.
Join Date: 11/04/17
Posts: 13
I agree with the other posts. I hope enough people would stand up against issues that are wrong. But some of the things I see politically today do concern me and make me wonder.
Join Date: 03/25/17
Posts: 190
I also agree. Given our political environment and the rise of the white nationalists, I'm afraid this could happen again if we aren't careful and don't stand up for our beliefs. History tells us silence allows corruption and mistreatment.
Join Date: 10/27/15
Posts: 146
I'd like to think we've grown & learned from mistakes of the past...but...we only have to look to the news to see what our country is capable of. We destabilized Libya and as a result, there are open slave markets in Libya. We've been waging a war on terror against predominately Muslim countries for almost 2 decades. It's been estimated that 1 million Iraqi children were killed & 4.5 million children lost one or both parents when we invaded Iraq under the pretense of Hussein having WMDs. So, honestly, I think our govt will always manage to find ways to justify poor treatment of others under the guise of homeland security & freedom.
Join Date: 10/23/12
Posts: 35
Take a look around,build a wall,separate children from they're parents,looks like we're heading right back there,just with a different peoples
Join Date: 08/10/17
Posts: 215
Native American tribes are still being cheated of their rights. Currently, the Rosebud Sioux and the Ft Belknap Reservation are involved in a lawsuit against the U.S. government related to the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline which is planned to cross sacred lands in South Dakota along with the lands of two other tribes in Montana. If there were oil spills they could damage sacred sites as well as the water supply that serves the Rosebud, Pine Ridge and Lower Brule Reservations. So while they are not being displaced and murdered, they are still being disregarded and mistreated.
Join Date: 08/07/11
Posts: 54
I think people are people. Some are good; some are bad. Some are fair; some are unfair, and some simply believe differently, neither right or wrong. We are educated but we all have different perspectives and life experiences and are still opinionated. I honestly think this is such a divisive, multi-faceted issue that this question might not have definitive answers.
Join Date: 02/06/17
Posts: 459
I think the United States often oversteps its own boundaries and brings harm on neighboring countries and their people when it sees something it wants or believes it can gain-or when the country's way of doing something differs from that of the United States. While we should have learned lessons from past mistakes, I do not believe that as a country, we are finished making them. Take for example the Civil War statue controversy. The statues, we have learned, we erected primarily as a response to the Civil Rights era--more than celebrating battlefield accomplishments or heroics, they were a symbol of power and control over others. By ignoring our countries own laws regarding asylum, we are attempting to keep a certain kind of people from having a better opportunity. And since when do we accept White Nationalists holding rallies in major cities? Treaties with Native American tribes are still be broken and promises ignored. All we have to do is look at the Keystone XL pipeline and Bears' Ears Monument.
The difference today is that we have 24 hour news cycles and Internet. It is harder to hide bad behavior and easier to reach millions who are more willing to use their voices to fight against the government and individuals who abuse the rights of others.
Join Date: 11/14/11
Posts: 160
There will always be governments that commit atrocities to achieve or maintain power, to expand influence, to subjugate, oppress or eradicate those that interfere with political objective. Look at Syria today, the Serbs in the Balkans, Hitler in Europe, Mao in China, Stalin in Russia....ISIS today.We Americans like to believe we have evolved as a society.However, the deep prejudice expressed by the left & the right against any who disagree with an opinion that fails to fall within a particular ideology has the potential to demonize a sub group to the degree that history could repeat. I hope not. Through history there has been migration of people, war, fights over land, oppression, evil, good, horrors. Ultimately, we Americans have the duty to limit the powers of government. The Indian wars, as all other that involves the US military, was supported and paid for by Washington.
Join Date: 01/15/17
Posts: 19
This question assumes that this type of thing has never recurred. There have been and continue to be instances of extreme, sanctioned prejudicial atrocities. Perhaps not wholesale slaughter, but there have been deaths. I’m thinking in particular of the rounding up of Japanese Americans, the persecution and killing of Black Americans, the caging of South American children. Not the acts of a mature nation.
Join Date: 09/11/11
Posts: 132
As a nearly lifelong Alaska, I can attest to the horrific treatment of the many tribes of indigenous people in that state. Children were taken from their families and sent to out of state boarding schools, then beaten if they spoke their native language. The whites introduces tuberculosis and other diseases to the native villages, almost decimating their people. Because of the introduction of alcohol by the whites, the alcoholism rate, along with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and Fetal Alcohol Effects, are overwhelming. It is a huge disgrace. Racism and prejudice still prevail.
Join Date: 10/16/10
Posts: 1011
I moved out to the Pacific Northwest from Ohio in my 30s. At some point I became drawn to a pictograph created by ancient Native Americans called "She Who Watches." I learned that the rock on which it was carved had been part of a corridor along the Columbia River, along with hundreds of others. This, along with a small number of others, was rescued when the Dalles Dam was built. The dam submerged not only this sacred area, but Celilo Falls, a village that had existed for 15,000 years and was thought to be the oldest continuously inhabited community on the North American continent when it was submerged. What really shocked me was that this happened in my lifetime and I had no idea, I hadn't been aware of this at all. What also hits home is that the government promised to provide housing for the displaced population but has yet to fulfill its commitment (Oregon's legislators supposedly rebooted the process in 2016).
So, no, I don't think our country as a whole has matured to where something like this couldn't happen again.
Join Date: 02/15/17
Posts: 24
I would hope not but given today's political environment I'm not so sure. Today it's the left vs. the right and anyone who doesn't follow the other ideology isn't given the time of day by the other side.
Join Date: 09/11/13
Posts: 4
I used to think so, but the way immigrant children were separated from their parents recently by our government greatly appalled me, and made me sad that our government would do something like that.
Join Date: 01/13/18
Posts: 226
Sadly, no. One only has to look at actions taken by the Department of the Interior and Department of Energy in the current administration to realize that only financial gain matters. Nothing else (environment, climate, land, oceans, people, animals, culture) matters. I fear that my grandchildren and future great-grandchildren are going to have to try to live in a barren wasteland.
Join Date: 06/28/11
Posts: 84
All mistreatment should be viewed with disgust. Sadly though, I don't think the world has matured enough to stop mistreating each other.
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