h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I thought your comments in the Peer review thread about Mount Rushmore were very interesting, and was just wondering if you could help me with something.

For my American Studies course we're studying therelationship between different ethnic groups in America, including attitudes towards native americans.

If it's not too much trouble, I'd be interested in knowing your thoughts on the matter, and whether you've ever suffered any prejudice.

What you are requesting has been the subject of books. I'm not sure I can adequately summarize the literature for you here, but I'll try.

Indian people in America are for the most part treated like children, especially if they persist in inhabiting their ancestral lands. The dominant culture has always been envious of these lands for various reasons that do not necessarily involve any inherent respect for or love of the earth.

There has always been some ambivalence on the part of the colonists regarding the native people. For example, were they truly human or some species of vermin?

This ambivalence might be summarized by a sign in a bar on the north side of the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. It states rather matter of factly, "We don't serve indians" or something to that effect. This is a lie of course, but it illustrates the duplicity involved. Indians are served until they're falling down drunk, then they're tossed out in the cold to emphasize the derision in which they are held.

Have I been discriminated against? Certainly. I've even been shot at, if you can believe that, and I'm not alone in that particular experience. Some people haven't been as lucky. They were not only shot at but hit and killed.

I rate right up there with prairie dogs and coyotes in the redneck white scheme of things, the fact that I hold a college degree not withstanding. Americans like to assert that such discrimination is a thing of the past, but it's not in Indian Country where disputes over land and resources continue in the present.

Nor are the assaults being perpetrated exclusively by white rednecks but by politians in the service of powerful corporations looking for favorable sites from which they can extract the vital resources required to sustain the dominant culture's way of life and dump the garbage that way of life accumulates.

Suffice it to say, there's little love lost between us and them nor has there even been.

What we experienced historically was experienced by other indigenous people who were subjected to colonization. That experience continues under that current global regime lead by the Americans.

If you would like to know how this is going to play out, just review the history of America respecting the native peoples. Inevitably, you should observe parallels with what's happening now all over the world. That might be useful insight to communicate to your American Studies class. The model for modern colonialism was perfected in the conquest of the American continent.

You're welcome.

Didn't se you'd replied until just now, sorry.

Thanks for that. I know there are plenty of books on the subject, but I was just looking for a personal perspective from someone like yourself, as I could tell from the mount rushmore thread that you had some pretty strong feelings on the matter.

So thank you. Very much.

You're welcome, again. I hope you will understand that this subject is of more than academic interest to me so while my views may seem strong, there's a good reason for that.