Injuns and guns
November 24th, 2007“Jonas” is a very intelligent man. He’s well-read, cultured, is a top-notch teacher, and has a wonderful sense of humor. Unfortunately, he has an irrational fear of firearms, a common side effect of being white, suburban, and middle class.
Jonas’ irrational fear of firearms has led more than once to arguments between he and I, and because of his irrationality, most of the stupidity has come from his side of the argument.
One such offense is one day, he spat out how could I love guns so much considering how pro-Native American I am. I quickly corrected him and exposed the absurdity of that statement.
Jonas and I are both historians. Jonas should know better. It wasn’t guns that lost the Americans to the white settlers. It was numbers, and more importantly, disease.
We will never know the numbers of Native Americans killed by European diseases, mainly smallpox. Smallpox raced ahead of white settlers. Keep in mind, Native peoples traded heavily among other tribes and peoples, carrying the diseases further. All we have now are estimates, and many estimates are saying that in some of the hardest hit areas, over 90% of the populations were killed by smallpox before white settlers even built permanent settlements. Some estimates even put the smallpox epidemic in the New World as bigger than the Black Death of the 14th Century, which killed 2/3rds of Europe.
Back to firearms, by the time of the mid-1700s, Native Americans had firearms, because the English, the French, and the Dutch were all fighting each other at various times and disposing muskets and ammo to their respective Native allies. If you read history, battle by battle, the whites didn’t always win, and often lost. Sometimes, the whites got absolutely slaughtered.
The Natives were bad ass warriors, and could cover ground much better than the whites. They lost because of numbers. By 1790, there were already four million Americans. That number grew steadily, and with a fast population growth, Americans continued moving West, displacing Native peoples.
That statement about firearms and Native Americans is an insult to these brave warriors, who to this day, military historians still study their tactics. I also do some Apache workout tricks, like sprint up hills with water in my mouth. Do that once a week and you’ll have stronger lungs than a swimmer.
In the 20th century and beyond, Native Americans have served this country wonderfully in our armed forces. I can’t say enough good about how brave these men and women are, and Jonas’ crap was a low blow.
If you’re curious and you want to read more about bad ass Native Americans, pick up histories of Geronimo, Tecumseh, Captain Jack (if I’m not mistaken, the only time an American General was killed in battle), Sitting Bull, or Blue Jacket. There are plenty of others, those are just some names I thought of off the top of my head.
When the pilgrims came, they had a lot of trouble finding the right foods and surviving in the wilderness. It was the Injuns who showed them the way and saved them. They became friends and had a feast. Thus, we have Thanksgiving. Injuns did a lot of cool things. We definitely need more of their history in schools.
Don’t forget Crazy Horse.
I think Chief Joseph is my favorite. He would have escaped to Canada, but he refused to abandon the women and children along the way.
Skeletorsambora - I took a weekend course with some Injun friends on Outdoor Survival Skills. The instructor was white, and he said hands down they were his favorite people to teach, because of anyone, they really wanted to be there and were very patient learning. Most folks are too impatient to learn the “boring” stuff, stuff that is essential but not sexy.
Tshsmom - Ah yes. How can I forget Crazy Horse and Chief Joseph? Definitely bad ass people who North Americans should know more about.
gees, even with my admittedly scant knowledge of all the complex issues of the whites vs the native amricans i can tell you it wasn’t about guns. that is just stupid.
out of curiosity, have you read 1491? i forget who the author is but it’s about the advanced nature of the native civilizations prior to european colonization. curious about your take on it. i have been wanting to read it for a while now.
Lime - I’ve been meaning to actually buy that book. The reviews looked fascinating.
I have a picture of your friend in my mind - he looks like the neighbour from the Simpsons but his name escapes me for the moment
I was always taught that ’smallpox blankets’ were given/traded deliberately - I have no idea how much truth there is in that.
One of my favourite sections of the Museum of Manchester contains some truly amazing native american artefacts - the beauty of the beadwork would make a grown man cry.
I will have to look out for 1491 - not seen it over here yet. I am currently reading 1421 ‘The Year China Discovered the World’ - great book.
When we first drove here to NW Montana, we went through Crow Agency, MT and went to The Battle of Little Bighorn Site. I took a photo of one of the displays that I thought you might like to take a look at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/requie/188876394/in/set-72157594198126524/
Sitting Bull, Gall, Rain-in-the-face, et. al., won that battle with the aide of firearms as well as the bow & arrow.
I believe in guns.
And I got Native American in me. That’s the only thing I’m not allergic to. I could walk through poison oak and get nothing. I walked through it with a short dress and no stockings and got nothing.
Native Americans are still here. They’re just mixed in.
Kate - I try not to speak of Native Americans only in the past. I’m well aware that you’re still here. And being immune to poison oak, you have no idea how lucky you are.
Courtney - I checked out your flickr site yesterday (those pics). Very cool. Thanks for posting. I’ll have to check out that museum one of these days.
Miladysa - The blankets may or may not be true. It was true that they were given blankets from infected people. What we don’t know is whether or not they did it knowing that they’d get infected, because keep in mind back then, people knew very little about disease. This is something that’s currently being debated among historians.
1421 is another book I want to read. Saw that one too.
Saw a little flyer the other day posted around work. The picture was of several Native Americans taken around the early 20th century. They were all holding rifles and the caption read:”Ask the Native Americans about what happens when you don’t control immigration”. Had disease not almost wiped them out they might have made Europeans pay an even higher price for the continent or even kept control of some part of it.