A Look in My Mirror

In discussing the Native Americans in Austin’s history class, I thought about the specialized treatment Americans have tried to show Natives throughout American history.  What many people never point out about the Europeans moving to the New World was the fact that it was an invasion of a new land.  The colonies were the foothold the Europeans needed to begin establishing the invasion.  A characteristic I have noticed about successful conquest of lands is the gradual nature of the process.  Few invaders who try to sweep the indigenous people out of the land in one fell swoop succeed.  It is the slow invasion, where people take over a small section at a time, that works.  The conquered people of the land, after it has been controlled by the new people, then have a choice between assimilate or die.

With natives, though, we laid the ground work for invasion then tried to negotiate for the land.  That doesn’t work.  Now we are apologizing to the Natives for successfully defeating them.  It seems ludicrous.  How many other invaders have ever apologized to the people they defeated.  I have never heard of the Normans telling the Angles and Saxons “I’m sorry for taking your land.”  The ultimate point is, if the people of a land are too weak to defend themselves from invasion, they should assimilate.  Not expect apologies.  But America has decided to feel sorrowful for doing something that has happened for centuries before we even began conquering the land we now occupy.