Do you believe that North American Aboriginals have been fairly treated both historically and presently?

Question

Would you give a detailed response please outlining your views based on facts.

To "Mouthbreaker 77" The question is not intended to show "disrespect" to anyone, unlike your insulting response.

Answer 1

The politically correct answer to your question is to shout "NO", with great indignation, and that would be correct but not for the reasons most suspect.

The North American Aboriginals have been through several popular view incarnations and none of them have been correct.
Initially they were portrayed as baby eating sub human monsters. This view prevailed until the North American Eastern seaboard was settled and westward expansion eased, which slowed the rate of confrontation. The native population then began to slip into the image of the noble savage that became popular in literature, think "Last of the Mohican's" or "A Light in the Forest". The truth of this portrayal was as unrealistic as as the previous one but it held sway for years.

As westward expansion picked up again conflict increased and again the native people's stock image underwent a shift back towards the negative. Events like the Minnesota Massacre and the Battle of the Little Bighorn warped the public perception and once again the sub human cruel monster was back. After the close of the Indian Wars, as they were called, around the mid 1890s the native was again held in high esteem, Geronimo rode in Teddy Roosevelt's inaugural parade as an honored guest. With the advent of the motion picture Hollywood found the native to be the ideal personification of evil and the image went back down as generations were taught to play Cowboys and Indians with the Indians always as the bad guy. Right around the late 1960's Hollywood rightly concluded that their portrayal of the native had been unjust and they set about sertting things right.

In true Hollywood fashion the rubberband snapped in the opposite direction with equal force and the movies produced, "Little Bigman" as an example, had about as much basis in history and fact as did the earlier John Wayne shoot'm ups. Movies like "Dances with Wolves" have gone a long way to portray the North American Aboriginals in the current popular culture as the first enviromentalists, in harmony with the land, good, kind and gentle. The government is usually viewed as the bad guy with the calvary as an enforcement arm little better than storm troopers. Both views are historical garbage but they are most common today.

I suspect that a real portrayal of the situation and peoples involved will take another hundred years. The truth is that neither side always acted as the good guys or the bad guys. History is written in shades of grey. There were treaties broken by the government and white settlers and treaties that were broken by the natives peoples. Murder and massacre were done by both to each others most defensless members. Considering how both treated each other neither side of the conflict should do anything other than hang their head in shame for their actions. Seventy years ago that statement would have brought howls of outrage from the pro white settlers side, sons of the pioneers or the like, while today it is popular to back the native cause and it will probably be met with anger from those politically correct fans of that which they have no understanding and who defend the native perspective without question.

The whites won out in the long conflict because they had the technological edge and greater population base. The native aboriginals lost because they were always willing to fight amongst themselves and a high stone age culture was no match for one with industry. I would say that the treatment of the North American Aboriginals has never been fair or honest as portrayed in popular images. So far as if they have been treated fairly by goverment and society's action, I would say the answer is "no" but you can't lay today's morals over yesterdays events without distortion. Better than many instances of a native peoples treatment and worse than others. Consider the Tasmainian's who were hunted to extinction by the first English settlers to their island. Give it another hundred years and maybe, just maybe, we can look back at this question in an honest, non hysterical, manner.

Answer 2

That's a huge question - kind of like asking "have Europeans treated each other fairly ..."

Some groups (tribes/nation) were treated with gross disregard. Look up the stories of what settlers in what is now western Georgia did when the Cherokee tried to join the Union.

Some groups were treated well by one European power and unfairly by another. Check out the history of the Wyandotte/Huron people.

Some groups have made out very well for themselves - for instance the Pequot people in Connecticut.

On the other hand, unfair treatment is not always at the hands of Europeans. Learn the story of the Lumbee's fight be recognized as an Indian nation and their opposition from other Indian groups.

And then there are cases of the mixed race people groups, like Canada's Metis, which is a whole other set of issues and stories.

So, in short, there have been entire books (and lots of them) written on this topic. I suggest you find one of them. Perhaps start with "Killing the White Man's Indian: Reinventing Native Americans at the End of the Twentieth Century" by Fergus M. Bordewich, published by Doubleday. It's a really good book.

Answer 3

Australia, Canada and the United States of America have struggled with the aboriginal question since the first colonialists arrived from Britain. In North America and Australia, there existed large groups of nomadic people, today commonly referred to as aboriginals or First Nations. The settlers made treaties with the aboriginals. In some cases, the treaties regulated the exchange of goods between the settlers and the aboriginals. In other cases, the aboriginals and the settlers made treaties of peace and friendship, promising to act as allies against other invading colonials. What was an equal partnership between the aboriginals and the settlers deteriorated. In North America and Australia, aboriginals were pushed onto reserves as their numbers dwindled due to small pox infection and tribal infighting. Aboriginal lands were used by settlers to establish farms and colonies. The Crown took advantage of the aboriginal’s language barrier to interpret treaties in favor of the settlers.Today, aboriginals in all three countries, but especially Australia and Canada, are using the court system to protect their treaty rights. Issues that are being litigated include whether aboriginals have a historic right to fish, hunt or trade on certain lands and whether aboriginals have title to lands seized by the Crown in violation of their treaties. Aboriginals are also struggling with issues of self-government and criminal justice MY SOURCE : YOU MY DEAR:)

Answer 4

Hello Jo!
Well, the invaders made among the heaviest genocides in North and South America! Estimates raise the number of the slaughtered locals to 100 millions! Yes, that many! Thus, initially, the Aboriginals of America were not treated, they were slaughtered! Those who survived were "breaded" with the invaders' genes and now, we can't find many 100% local Americans, in the USA and Canada.
So, now they are either not treated properly or they are not 100% locals, any more; still, though, they are treated like second class citizens. In many regions they ar pushed to alcohol, drugs, smoking, etc., ...., that is among the saddest human stories!

Answer 5

No. Native Americans had their lands taken away from them and were continually moved around, eventually winding up on reservations. Accusations about deliberately giving them diseases are probably apocryphal, but can't be ruled out. Much of their culture was all but destroyed and many of their languages are all but extinct.

Answer 6

Your question requires a response too large for this forum, but you can check out the link below for a synopsis.

Answer 7

no conquered country has ever been treated good , and native of Americans are not different , but treat people nice you`ll never know what may happens tomorrow .

Answer 8

Who put this silly question into your head? A liberal professor? Why do you care about people who are conquered? Did the Romans care about conquering the Celts? The Greeks, Persians, Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, British, etc. all conquered in the name of empire. It is not a question of fairness. How old are you? Your question is disrespectful to all of the whites and blacks who were enslaved by Turks, Europeans, Chinese, etc.

Answer 9

We've been fighting terrorism since 1492.