Broken Treaties

Posted by Jeffrey R Gudzune Apr 1, 2007

While examining the history of land cessions made by Native American states, I was amazed to discover that nearly all followed some form of conflict. A few were the result of America's major conflicts such as the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Cvil War. However, many more were the result of the so-called "Indian Wars"; conlficts that resulted from American expansion into territory already occupied. The winning side of any conflict has always justified taking land from a defeated enemy as the right of conquest. However, the United States practiced a policy of negotiation, as if it were already treating the Native American state as an equal. These agreements were far from equal. Only with persistence did the Native American way of life survive.

So much of what this nation has become is linked to the succor and support that our predecessors on this continent gave to the early settlers. The early colonists lacked a proper respect for the diverse environmental conditions in this "New World" they claimed to have discovered. They would have perished had it not been for the farming and agricultural techniques taught them by the Native Americans. Greed and ignorance became a sickness that corrupted the settlers as the transplanted population exploded and they turned thier envious eyes toward the native population. Two worlds collided and history bore witness to America's longest and most bloody conflict. Peace, however, finally prevailed...yet the wounds are still mending.