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2024年3月18日发(作者:)
Lesson 1 The Wild West’s Legacy of Shame
By John Halford
1. THE LEGENDS of the Wild West still color many people’s impression of the
United States of America. Unfortunately, the romanticized Hollywood cowboys and
Indians have given a distorted picture of what really happened.
2. Certainly, America’s western expansion was in many ways an epic of courage
and endurance. Dogged pioneers opened up new territory and forged a nation from
the wilderness. This is the stuff of legends. But there was a dark side to this story. For
the Indians it was a sad, bitter tale of misunderstanding, greed and betrayal — and we
should know that too.
3. Before 1990 fades from memory, let’s pause to remember December 29 as the
100th anniversary of the Battle of Wounded Knee. This “battle” (it was more of a
massacre) marked the completion of the conquest of the North
the United States government.
American Indians by
Not Enough Indians
4. In the early days of settlement along the Atlantic shore the colonists and the
Indians got along together. Their ways of life were different, but there was room for
both.
5. The Indians were not unorganized hostile savages. The various tribes were often
confederations or nations, and at first, the new se tlers treated them as independent
powers. But as European settlement gathered momentum, mistrust began to build.
6. It was not long before the newcomers outnumbered the native peoples (It has
been estimated there were only about a million Amerindians in the continent north of
what is now Mexico).
7. In the struggle between the French and the British for control of North America
(1689— 1763), and in the later Revolutionary War (1775—1783) between the British
and the Colonists, the Europeans tried to win the support of the Indians.
8. They became pawns in the white man’s struggle to control North America.
Those who found themselves on the losing side suffered reprisals by the victors.
9. By the end of the 18th century, the independence of the United States was
established, and George Washington admonished Congress: We are more enlightened
and more powerful than the Indian nations. It behooves our honor to treat themwith
kindness and even generosity.
10.
But that’s not what happened. Might became right
①
, and fromthe beginning
of nationhood of the United States, the native people were exploited, forced from their
homelands by the relentless European expansion — usually after signing agreements
and treaties they did not really understand.
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