• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

America

Jimmy

Jimmy

King Phenomenon
Why do people say colonization wiped out Native Americans when most of them died from European disease? I guess it was colonization really but people make it sound like they died in war.
 
The Hammer

The Hammer

Skald
Premium Member
Moon said:
Why do people say colonization wiped out Native Americans when most of them died from European disease? I guess it was colonization really but people make it sound like they died in war.
Click to expand...

Because those diseases would never have arrived in the new world, without colonization.

"Nobody knows exactly how many Indians died of smallpox in the dreadful epidemic of 1837–38. Figures range from a responsible 17,200, based on interviews with the most ravaged tribes of the Plains, to a hyperbolic 150,000. The impact on a relatively small population of hunter-gatherers and now nearly extinct small farmers was on the level of the Black Death in Europe and far beyond the influenza epidemic of World War I in terms of proportional loss of life and reduction of culture — though in fact more Plains Indians may have died of influenza, tuberculosis and pneumonia once confined to reservations on short rations in the 1880s than succumbed to smallpox in 1837–38."
 
The Hammer

The Hammer

Skald
Premium Member
It's also not just that. But the forcing of Native tribes onto reservations. The decimation of their Cultures by refusing to allow them to practice it.

And then taking their children, refusing to allow them to speak their native tongue (typically through beatings), and shipping them off to "reeducation camps" in the guise of "enlightening the savages".
 
Last edited:
Jimmy

Jimmy

King Phenomenon
The Hammer said:
Because those diseases would never have arrived in the new world, without colonization.

"Nobody knows exactly how many Indians died of smallpox in the dreadful epidemic of 1837–38. Figures range from a responsible 17,200, based on interviews with the most ravaged tribes of the Plains, to a hyperbolic 150,000. The impact on a relatively small population of hunter-gatherers and now nearly extinct small farmers was on the level of the Black Death in Europe and far beyond the influenza epidemic of World War I in terms of proportional loss of life and reduction of culture — though in fact more Plains Indians may have died of influenza, tuberculosis and pneumonia once confined to reservations on short rations in the 1880s than succumbed to smallpox in 1837–38."
Click to expand...
I read 20-50 million died
 
Heyo

Heyo

Veteran Member
Moon said:
Why do people say colonization wiped out Native Americans when most of them died from European disease? I guess it was colonization really but people make it sound like they died in war.
Click to expand...
It was both, the diseases were, in part, biological warfare. When the colonists found out that natives were more vulnerable to European diseases, mostly smallpox, they "gifted" pox infested blankets to the natives.
 
The Hammer

The Hammer

Skald
Premium Member
Heyo said:
It was both, the diseases were, in part, biological warfare. When the colonists found out that natives were more vulnerable to European diseases, mostly smallpox, they "gifted" pox infested blankets to the natives.
Click to expand...

This is debated, which is why I didn't bring it up. There isn't any reputable evidence that it occured.
 
metis

metis

aged ecumenical anthropologist
Moon said:
Why do people say colonization wiped out Native Americans when most of them died from European disease? I guess it was colonization really but people make it sound like they died in war.
Click to expand...
The disease issue was sometimes done intentionally by trading or giving smallpox infested blankets to them. Also, the bison almost went extinct as there was a policy to kill them so as to starve the indigenous. Some of the "war heroes" became as such with how many of the Indians they could kill under their command. Overcrowded reservations were created, and so many of their lands were taken away even after they were promised that they could live on the land originally allocated in peace.

Thus, a very high percentage of indigenous deaths were not from war directly.
 
Jimmy

Jimmy

King Phenomenon
Heyo said:
It was both, the diseases were, in part, biological warfare. When the colonists found out that natives were more vulnerable to European diseases, mostly smallpox, they "gifted" pox infested blankets to the natives.
Click to expand...
Doubt that
 
Shaul

Shaul

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Heyo said:
It was both, the diseases were, in part, biological warfare. When the colonists found out that natives were more vulnerable to European diseases, mostly smallpox, they "gifted" pox infested blankets to the natives.
Click to expand...
That is a myth.
 
PureX

PureX

Veteran Member
The Hammer said:
Because those diseases would never have arrived in the new world, without colonization.

"Nobody knows exactly how many Indians died of smallpox in the dreadful epidemic of 1837–38. Figures range from a responsible 17,200, based on interviews with the most ravaged tribes of the Plains, to a hyperbolic 150,000. The impact on a relatively small population of hunter-gatherers and now nearly extinct small farmers was on the level of the Black Death in Europe and far beyond the influenza epidemic of World War I in terms of proportional loss of life and reduction of culture — though in fact more Plains Indians may have died of influenza, tuberculosis and pneumonia once confined to reservations on short rations in the 1880s than succumbed to smallpox in 1837–38."
Click to expand...
The bottom line, however, was that the colonizers were happy to see them gone. Disease, starvation, murder, addiction, it was all the same result for us. More free land and resources for the taking.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top