Cultural Genocide Quotes
To many, this quotation is shocking. TR was a presidential pioneer in race relations being the first President to ever invite a Black to dine at the White House. See {588996} for his views on Blacks. Although modern and liberal with respect to most minorities, TR had a major blind spot regarding Native Americans and was among the worst racists.
At the time, some Palestinian Arabs claimed exclusive rights to the territory on the grounds that Arabs had dominated the area for the longest period of time. They gave no credence to the fact that the Jews had dominated the area and it was the center of their kingdom for many years before—that Jews had constantly lived in the area of longer than the Arabs, nor did they give any credence to the fact that the Christians had conquered the area from the Muslims during the Crusades.
Sheridan was essentially right. With the Bison no longer available for hunting, the plains Indians had to depend on agriculture and settle on reservations or assimilate and integrate into white society. There was no specific policy to destroy the great buffalo herds, but the railroads allowed meat and the hides to be shipped East and sold for large profits for the companies who organized hunters and paid well for the buffalo. The overhunting and lack of any conservation principles soon led to the disappearance of the herds and almost made the Bison extinct. Today, we have built up some herds and they are being raised like cattle again providing meat and hides for man’s use. It is too bad that these techniques were not known then, as that could have been a terrific industry for the Indians although ranching was contrary to their then existing culture.
Tibet and some other ethnic enclaves of China have been almost impervious to the general improvement in the standard of living that China accomplished at the end of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st. China is not the only nation to have this difficulty. Some would argue that America still has it with some of its Native American nations. The great challenge is trying to develop and modernize a culture that does not want to be modernized at the moment but still wants many of the benefits of modernization.
The Seminole Wars were one of the low points in American military behavior. With the specific permission of Commanding General Jesup, the soldiers were to loot the homes and personal possessions of the enemy civilians as well as fighters, but he favored extermination and there were many atrocities. He even seized the Seminole Leaders who had been invited for Peace Talks.
