What do Americans think of Native Indians?

[JonnyRingo84]

I’ve read about it in the past but don’t have sources in the immediate. You’re free to research this yourself. I’d also add that disease wiped more of them out than fighting with the ‘white man’ by far.


Truth be told, fighting whites is much much more of a Hollywood Cowboys and Indians thing than the reality of what actually happened to them and why many died off. They did fight obviously, but not in the sense people seem to be mentioning.

right.

50%-90% of all natives in north and south america were killed mostly from running across the diseased pigs that conquistadors left behind in the 1500's. pigs swept across the continents like a wildfire...an animal new to the western hemisphere, as so many were from the old world. the vast majority of natives died never even knowing that whites existed. the stereotypical native on horseback didnt even exist until the 1600's, when horses were brought back to the continent from europeans.

the fighting and ethnic cleansing was real too, sort of.

as far as "wiping out" native populations with violence....that is fiction. cortes never would have had a shot in hell in defeating the aztecs, even with guns, had it not been for disease. he had to flee at one point and return after 3 years with more men. when he came back, most of tenochtitlan was dead. even still, they gave cortes allllll he could handle.

people were slaughtered by whites. babies even. but not ALL whites, and not in numbers high enough to make a dent in overall native pop. from columbus' first day on the beach, there were ALWAYS factions of euros that wanted to treat the natives well, and those that wanted to rape, kill, and or push them out. those factions would exist in our own US govt until the early 20th century.

 

[ithinktheymad]

It took a bit of fortuitous timing and geography to make it all happen though. The isolation of the new world made them incredibly susceptible to disease, it was basically the apocalypse by the time the Europeans showed up in real numbers.

You also had the Aztecs as the major world power in the new world and failing crops mixed with brutalized and oppressed neighbors meant that the Europeans had a lot of help in bringing down their biggest threat. We have this possible alternate history where the Aztec steamroll their way up north and conquer the continent. Bloodshed and genocide seemed to be coming after that plague no matter what, the question is what would that Aztec empire have become in a globalized world?

Straight out of a 1960's textbook.

Actually one characteristic that people shared in Americas probably was a significant contributor to their lack of immunity and thus their colonization is the indigenous practice of personal hygiene particularly bathing which was not yet a routine activity among Europeans.

The Mexica didn't even control half of Mexico btw and that's even using the modern boundary.

TS, that is another thing. They are not generally considered with other indigenous peoples of the Americas.

 

[Slick_36]

Straight out of a 1960's textbook.

Actually one characteristic that people shared in Americas probably was a significant contributor to their lack of immunity and thus their colonization is the indigenous practice of personal hygiene particularly bathing which was not yet a routine activity among Europeans.

The Mexica didn't even control half of Mexico btw and that's even using the modern boundary.

TS, that is another thing. They are not generally considered with other indigenous peoples of the Americas.

What was wrong exactly? Were the Mexica not looking to expand territory? Were they not the most established military at the time? The outdated stuff I've been taught is that it was simply a difference in technology. Though I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of information is still changing or has just been wrong, that's what happens when you destroy information at the source and spend hundreds of years changing the narrative.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

More white people giving their opinion on Natives or telling us about our history or making blanket statements because of a few interactions.

 

[Deleted member 335905]

It’s a pretty well documented fact that the Comanche were one of the most violent groups of people to ever walk the earth.

I am Comanche, and Yes they had some crazy brutal beliefs.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

I think it’s sad that this country was founded on genocide of the Natives and the mass kidnapping and slavery of Africans. It’s fuckin despicable and it’s not acknowledged nearly enough.

I have a lot of respect for the native cultures. I wish there were more varied portrayals. With the recent rise in popularity of documentaries, this would be a great topic to cover.

There are plenty of native writers, film makers, artists. You just gotta look.

At least they are not getting actual Native to portray Natives in films.

Some good books(off the top of my head) written by natives are

The absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (think Diary of a wimpy kid but on a Rez)
The Marrow Thieves
Indian Horse (also a movie)
The lesser Blessed

Movies
Dance me Outside
Smoke Signals
The Lesser Blessed
Indian Horse

 

[HomeCheese]

Let's be real, most of us don't know any or know only a few native Americans. There are very few of them left. I spent a month on a reservation near where I lived and did some consulting with a few Native American Health Centers. I have lots of respect for their culture and what they have gone through. They are people like the rest of us.

I was in Montana of business in the mid 90's and took a tour of Little Big Horn and Custer's last stand. It's hard not to feel happy for the victory for the Native Americans. If I remember correctly it was their largest victory in all the conflicts they had with the US killing something like 180 soldiers. I believe the US troops saw the native's women and children off in the distance and decided to attack them and hold them as ransom against the men. As they were riding towards them they stumbled into the men and were all of the sudden trapped into a fight and lost. The troops had guns and many of the natives had bow and arrows.

On a side note, we always thought my ex wife was part Mexican - It even says Mexico on her birth certificate. Turns out she and my kids are part Apache. Hell yeah.

 

[Dulfus]

Here in Canada almost every single native person is an alcoholic drug addicted violent person. Women are often sex workers. They go missing and no one looks for them. It’s awful for the little kids.

Really?! Do your only interactions with natives happen while your searching for crack in downtown Winnipeg?
I'm fully aware that substance abuse is a prevalent problem within the culture, but to say "almost every single native person is an alcoholic drug addicted violent person", you're being horrendously ignorant.

 

[benebox]

Hmmm, Casino owners or heroin addicts is what the media portray him as.

 

[Sensei Student]

Indians? We haven't called them Indians since before we changed Columbus day to Indigenous People day.

I don't know about majority of the 'Muricans, but the educated ones like myself can differentiate Native Americans to Indians or Indian-American. We know they were the original inhabitants and that the mean white people took it from them but nobody cares because they have a better life now owning Casinos and shit. Indians on the other hand are your telecommunicators and tech supports. Indian Americans are your local corner store owners or Taxi drivers.

^That's what we think!

 

[Slick_36]

Indians? We haven't called them Indians since before we changed Columbus day to Indigenous People day.

I don't know about majority of the 'Muricans, but the educated ones like myself can differentiate Native Americans to Indians or Indian-American. We know they were the original inhabitants and that the mean white people took it from them but nobody cares because they have a better life now owning Casinos and shit. Indians on the other hand are your telecommunicators and tech supports. Indian Americans are your local corner store owners or Taxi drivers.

^That's what we think!

Nonsense. Indian is fine to plenty, just like you have black power instead of African-American power. Some people don't like the hyphenated labels, it comes off to them as other-American.

 

[steve38]

I befriended a native american in a south dakota bar many years ago. The locals seemed wary of him, and even though he lived there, we were both treated as strangers.

We talked about sports, life, women, and anything but him being an Indian. With each beer, I kept waiting for him to get violently drunk, and part of me was hoping I could witness the inevitable.

But in the end he politely excused himself, and said he was going home. Of course everyone in the bar trashed him when he left. It seemed kind of asshole-ish to me, but maybe they knew him better than I did.

 

[Judoka1532]

I feel like i've always had a degree of respect for native americans. Never have I saw a native and assumed bad things about them or treated them differently. I am in fact 5.4% native myself.

 

[Sensei Student]

Nonsense. Indian is fine to plenty, just like you have black power instead of African-American power. Some people don't like the hyphenated labels, it comes off to them as other-American.

black is fine because everyone knows black means African. But Indian is very misleading. Are you talking about Native Americans or people from India? Kind of like when you refer an Asian as Chinese. Quite misleading and wrong.

 

[Brodels]

I don't think a single person has a problem with them or looks down upon them. All that hatred, oppression, bigotry, keeping people down the she's keep screaming about is all total bullshit that doesn't exist.

 

[lostdog000]

friend lived on the rez
he said some were super cool, but a ton were super alcoholic druggie idiots, angry and unstable. wife beaters, child beaters, molesters.... i wouldnt wanna be around em.

 

[Slick_36]

black is fine because everyone knows black means African. But Indian is very misleading. Are you talking about Native Americans or people from India? Kind of like when you refer an Asian as Chinese. Quite misleading and wrong.

Not really, there's not a lot of crossover in the populations. It's usually pretty obvious what you mean. It's not like there's not a place for Native American, I'm just saying Indian is fine as a colloquial term and there's not some universal agreement about its use.

 

[MicroBrew]

writing is the foundation of civilization

The Inca empire did not have writing but they are considered a civilization. "Civilization" and what defines it is a bit broad. Some anthropologists would say year-round settled agriculture, intensive irrigation and permanent large scale communal infrastructure are signs of civilization.

If anything an agrarian culture is the foundation for civilization, because it is the factor that transformed groups from being hunter-gatherers and or pastoralists into settling down and building cities and developing writing, irrigation, mathematics etc..

 

[Mike]

Probably depends on if you've had experiences with them, and what kind. When I lived in Washington you would see them around, and they seemed pretty much like any other group. Then later on I lived in NM near the reservations. And that was an incredibly unpleasant experience.

 

[j123]

Canadian here so it might be a bit different, but the ones I've met here has been pretty good. I'm in a big city though, so it might be different compared to a more rural part where jobs are scarce.

An old teammate had a MMA fight at a reserve and said things got a bit wild so they bolted soon as he won