Barry Lyndon
30th September 2010, 17:42
Between 1492 when Columbus landed, and 1890 the indigenous population of the Western hemisphere(estimated at 50-100 million total 500 years ago) declined by 95% due to European colonialist warfare, enslavement, starvation, and smallpox epidemics. Imagine if every white and black person in the United States today died and you might get a sense of the enormity of this genocide of literally apocalyptic proportions.
To get a glimpse of the humanity behind these numbers, here are two stories from David Stannards book on the subject 'American Holocaust':
A Spanish conquistador describing the conquest of the Maya in Mexico in the 16th century:
"The captain Alonso Lopez de Avila, brother-in-law of the adelantado Montejo, captured, during the war in Bacalan, a young Indian woman of lovely and gracious appearance. She had promised her husband, fearful lest they should kill him in the war, not to have relations with any other man but him, and so no persuasion was sufficient to prevent her from taking her own life to avoid being defiled by another man; and because of this they had her thrown to the dogs."
A United States Cavalryman describing a massacre of a Cheyenne camp in Sand Creek, Colorado, in 1864:
"There was one little child, probably three years old, just big enough to walk through the sand. The Indians had gone ahead, and this little child was behind following after them. The little fellow was perfectly naked, travelling on the sand. I saw one man get off his horse, at a distance of about seventy-five yards, and draw up his rifle and fire-he missed the child. Another man came up and said, 'Let me try the son of a *****; I can hit him.' He got down off his horse, kneeled down and fired at the little child, but he missed him. A third man came up and made a similar remark, and fired, and the little fellow dropped."
This is not just distant history. The genocide, merely in the more subtle form of cultural destruction and social disintegration, continues to this day, with Native Americans continuing to rot on their reservations from poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, and general despair, with barely any notice from the rest of society. The suicide rate of Native Americans aged 15 to 24 is over 3 times the national average, because they see no future. This while the United States became the richest nation on earth in large part because of the vast tracts of gold, copper, oil, and other resources taken from their stolen land.
In Latin America, overt violence and extermination continues to this very day. US-backed neo-fascist proxy states continue to assault, torture, murder, and expel indigenous Americans to make way for agribusinesses, logging companies and mining corporations:
Clashes in Peru leave over 30 dead:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/08/peru.violence/index.html (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/08/peru.violence/index.html)
Indigenous Colombians face possibility of extinction:
http://latindispatch.com/2010/09/10/indigenous-colombians-face-extinction-u-n-report-says/ (http://latindispatch.com/2010/09/10/indigenous-colombians-face-extinction-u-n-report-says/)
As Mao once said, where there is oppression, there is also resistance. The continuing assault against indigenous peoples has not ended, but the fightback did not die out either. When at Wounded Knee, I talked to aging American Indian Movement veterans who defended the very hill that we stood at the foot of against a siege by FBI agents in 1973. One of those veteran freedom fighters, Leonard Peltier, continues to rot in federal prison on trumped up charges for 33 years and counting, with Obama shamefully becoming one of a long line of US presidents to continue to incarcerate him.
http://www.freepeltiernow.org/welcome.htm (http://www.freepeltiernow.org/welcome.htm)
In Latin America, indigenous peasants continue to fight for control of their water and their land-and sometimes win against the odds:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Bolivia_WaterWarVictory.html (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Bolivia_WaterWarVictory.html)
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/18/peru.indians/ (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/18/peru.indians/)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/23/cochabamba-climate-court (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/23/cochabamba-climate-court)
For Columbus Day, remember Tupac Amaru, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and the countless indigenous people past and present who have fought to survive against the imperialist juggernaught. It is they, and not their persecutors and killers, who deserve to be celebrated and when at all possible supported.
To get a glimpse of the humanity behind these numbers, here are two stories from David Stannards book on the subject 'American Holocaust':
A Spanish conquistador describing the conquest of the Maya in Mexico in the 16th century:
"The captain Alonso Lopez de Avila, brother-in-law of the adelantado Montejo, captured, during the war in Bacalan, a young Indian woman of lovely and gracious appearance. She had promised her husband, fearful lest they should kill him in the war, not to have relations with any other man but him, and so no persuasion was sufficient to prevent her from taking her own life to avoid being defiled by another man; and because of this they had her thrown to the dogs."
A United States Cavalryman describing a massacre of a Cheyenne camp in Sand Creek, Colorado, in 1864:
"There was one little child, probably three years old, just big enough to walk through the sand. The Indians had gone ahead, and this little child was behind following after them. The little fellow was perfectly naked, travelling on the sand. I saw one man get off his horse, at a distance of about seventy-five yards, and draw up his rifle and fire-he missed the child. Another man came up and said, 'Let me try the son of a *****; I can hit him.' He got down off his horse, kneeled down and fired at the little child, but he missed him. A third man came up and made a similar remark, and fired, and the little fellow dropped."
This is not just distant history. The genocide, merely in the more subtle form of cultural destruction and social disintegration, continues to this day, with Native Americans continuing to rot on their reservations from poverty, unemployment, alcoholism, and general despair, with barely any notice from the rest of society. The suicide rate of Native Americans aged 15 to 24 is over 3 times the national average, because they see no future. This while the United States became the richest nation on earth in large part because of the vast tracts of gold, copper, oil, and other resources taken from their stolen land.
In Latin America, overt violence and extermination continues to this very day. US-backed neo-fascist proxy states continue to assault, torture, murder, and expel indigenous Americans to make way for agribusinesses, logging companies and mining corporations:
Clashes in Peru leave over 30 dead:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/08/peru.violence/index.html (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/08/peru.violence/index.html)
Indigenous Colombians face possibility of extinction:
http://latindispatch.com/2010/09/10/indigenous-colombians-face-extinction-u-n-report-says/ (http://latindispatch.com/2010/09/10/indigenous-colombians-face-extinction-u-n-report-says/)
As Mao once said, where there is oppression, there is also resistance. The continuing assault against indigenous peoples has not ended, but the fightback did not die out either. When at Wounded Knee, I talked to aging American Indian Movement veterans who defended the very hill that we stood at the foot of against a siege by FBI agents in 1973. One of those veteran freedom fighters, Leonard Peltier, continues to rot in federal prison on trumped up charges for 33 years and counting, with Obama shamefully becoming one of a long line of US presidents to continue to incarcerate him.
http://www.freepeltiernow.org/welcome.htm (http://www.freepeltiernow.org/welcome.htm)
In Latin America, indigenous peasants continue to fight for control of their water and their land-and sometimes win against the odds:
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Bolivia_WaterWarVictory.html (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/South_America/Bolivia_WaterWarVictory.html)
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/18/peru.indians/ (http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/06/18/peru.indians/)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/23/cochabamba-climate-court (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/apr/23/cochabamba-climate-court)
For Columbus Day, remember Tupac Amaru, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and the countless indigenous people past and present who have fought to survive against the imperialist juggernaught. It is they, and not their persecutors and killers, who deserve to be celebrated and when at all possible supported.