Yeah, Custer was really up a Creek. But that's nothing to Crow about so Sioux me if I don't celebrate.
There's been some interesting stuff coming out about this battle in the last few years. Apparently, not only was Custer outnumbered, he was also badly out gunned! The Indians had some sort of repeating carbine (does Spencer sound right, you gun nuts?) Ultimately, though, General Sherman was correct when he said that the U.S. Army killed far too few Indians to even begin to conquer the West. Most of the work was done by smallpox not bullets. In the Pacific Northwest, there are the usual, and chilling, descriptions of "bodies stacked like cordwood". The Jesuits expressed horror and sadness but the Protestant missionaries ascribed the pandemic to God clearing the land for white Christian settlers... I don't suppose it really matters much. Dead is dead.
Native Americans were gunned-down like animals by whites during the Gold Rush period in California. Disease (other than whatever nutty ideas in the heads of whites lead them to believe it was okay) certainly had nothing to do with that.
For the Plains tribes the slaughter of the buffalo, encouraged by the government had a big factor in the tribes eventual defeat. Starvation is always a good way to win a war. For the eastern tribes (my folks) there was also that whole Trail of Tears thing. That was years after most of the tribes had adapted to the diseases. Deb
Quite correct on both points but even the Long March (the Navajo equivalent of the Trail of Tears; thank you President Jackson may you rot in Hell) did not kill the literal millions necessary to...well!...clear the continent for white settlement.
Should have been a little clearer. What I meant was that by the time "official" policy was to clear the Indians, there weren't that many left to clear, so the policies worked even better. Disease started the job, government policy (in all kind of ways) tried to finish it.
When I was in school, "Manifest Destiny" sounded like such a patriotic and Heavenly-inspired idea ... When you consider the "negative externalities" that resulted, it should cause thinking people to consider the current plight of our Native American brethren in a different context.
