It puzzles me that most people don’t take seriously the fact that this country was stolen from the Native Americans, and that millions of them were killed in the process. It has been swept away from the national consciousness as if it never occurred-or if it did, was a noble act in the name of God, civilization and progress…between seven million and eighteen million indigenous people were living in what is today the continental United States when Columbus arrive in the New World. By 1924 there were fewer than 240,000 left; their ancestors had been victimized by centuries of disease, starvation and systematic slaughter. To my mind the killing of the Indians was an even larger crime against humanity than the Holocaust: not only did it take more lives, but it was a crime committed over centuries that continues in some ways to this day.
The above words of Marlon Brando are actually not that puzzling when one considers our history and focus in the United States when depicting the struggle between white men and Native Americans. To a large degree the main focus for most of the 19th and 20th centuries has been Eurocentric. As such, the history of America’s treatment of the Indians has come from the perspective of the winners not the losers, a fact that has erased the Indian perspective from most American’s conscious minds. In fact, the imperialistic attempts of the American government to systematically destroy the indigenous cultures living here were strong enough to strip modern Native Americans of their past, their culture and their connection with the Earth. From government seizures of their lands, records and cultural artifacts to the killing of millions of Indians, the American government successfully eradicated the Native American culture from its roots. Indians were left displaced and powerless on top of losing their spiritual connection from the cultural devastation wreaked upon them by the United States.
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