Were North American Indians the Victims of Genocide?
Most White Americans accept this charge. It conjures up visions of helpless, innocent Amerindian women and children being systematically massacred so that White people could plunder their lands. We are supposed to believe that our very own people, our pioneering ancestors here in America, were utterly selfish, heartless, and cruel. The truth however, except in rare and limited instances, is very different from this. In the following essay, I will present mitigating factors of the so-called “Indian genocide” which greatly attenuate, though do not entirely eliminate, our ancestors’ alleged guilt for their conquest of this continent. As general background for this essay, I suggest that readers first read Guenter Lewy’s Were American Indians the Victims of Genocide? This is an objective overview of the subject which gives a fairly detailed examination of the history of White/Amerindian relations in North America. When our ancestors came to America, and gradually migrated westward across th
