In a message dated 6/20/00 10:22:10 AM Pacific Daylight Time, Martin Ling (?)
writes:<< >...I'd rather be enslaved, a situation in which I am alive and
have a
chance of escaping or being freed, than 'give the finger' and be
annihilated. >>
Some one made a comment about the American Indian following the route of
the one finger salute.
Their conduct might be understood that way but I believe generally the
Indian has to be understood in the light of their situation.
It is believed by some that originally there were as many as fifty
million Americans spread from the North Pole to the South Pole. It is said
that ninety percent of that population died; the majority died of disease not
violence; and they often died before the white man was even on the local
scene.
When the white man arrived he made treaties and broke them, the Americans
kept dying of disease and sometimes violence, the white man ruined the
hunting and blocked the Americans off their hunting grounds in other cases.
I am trying to paint a picture of the red man coming to realize that if
he fought he would die and if he didn't fight he would die. If he went on
the reservation he would starve. Finally he fought. His chances of winning
were very poor but better than the alternative.
Ron H.
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