Why are Americans supposed to feel especially bad about displacing Indians?

Question

The Indians were here first, their land was attacked by outsiders so they tried to fight back but they lost and now it belongs to the outsiders. How is this different from the story of any other nation on Earth?

Answer 1

While I am not supporting or condmening any specific actions, no one on this planet today should feel ANY guilt for ANYTHING that happend before they were born.

And there is a huge misrepresentation of what happend to Native Americans. While numerous treaties were broken, there were most certainly voluntary transfers of land and miltary support.

People who call it genocide are making a SWEEPING generalization...

Answer 2

You shouldnt feel bad for what for ancentors did, but still today Americans indians are treated as second class citizens (american indians were granted us citizenship in 1924). MAny people do not see Natives as human beings, they see them as a Sqanto that was invited to Thanksgiving dinner. there are 500 different American indian groups, eachof them different. The settlers killed hundreds of thousands of indians, not just with war but out right sport of killing (this is where scapling comes from, 5 bucks for an indian scalp). Countless treaties have been broken by the US government. when inidans were forcable "removed to reservations" the government did not provide food and other supplies it said it would, again large populations of tribes died. The government also implemented boarding school in attempts to Americanize indian children, in these schools the children where not allowed to speak their native languages and where treated as if in the military (dress and all), many were not allowed to return home for visits. Many of the children that fell sick ended up dying from lack of care.
One thing that some people do not understand is the Indian tribes are very very connected to their lands. You can't be an Indian somewhere else... their religion and way of life is connected to the lands that they come from (eg black hill and the Lakota people).
Bottom line is that after hundreds of year of being mistreated, isnt it time to work with the indians? they are people, too.

Answer 3

It's in the manner it was done, it was unequal and not only that, Natives ~helped~ the Pilgrims survive their first winter and then stabbed them in the back.

They didn't just lose, we took their heritage, their culture - religion and social structure - put them on reservations which are almost like cow pens without the barbed wire. The country didn't give them citizenship for many years and they were here before the government. They have been treated as less than human. How people treat others is the best indicator of just what kind of people they are and in terms of how we treated the Native Americans we ~failed~.

Answer 4

Well I usually refer to them as Native American because they are not Indian. Indian refers to someone who is from India. I was told that this is the correct term to call them. I also agree about the Black American. I am American a Black American of African ancestry. So Black American would be more fitting.

Answer 5

b/c when that happen the native american indians didn't have equal rights as the british and spanish who TOOK THEIR land, they were used as slaves, and their main source of food (buffalo) was us as game/sport...but no one today is suppose to feel bad about what happen in the past...just learn from it

Answer 6

didn't the indians migrate across the landbridge that is now the bering strait? so every body came from somewhere. and history is full of attacking people and stuff. if it weren't for wars of conquer and agression, you would probably be speaking persian or something