I think it is silly to compare terrible things one culture did vs another. However, I do think that we have to remember that History is very subjective. It is undeniable that in the US we skim over the atrocities committed against the Native Americans (or bad things we've done to people). If you want to learn more about the way we treated Native Americans (you will have to dig deep as this is not a popular subject or one anyone in the US likes to talk about). Check out the documentary: The Canary Effect and then come back and we can discuss it (I know nobody actually will but it is worth a suggestion). The documentary isn't a bunch of propaganda either, it is well done using interviews with US University history professors, ex US Senators, quotes from Andrew Jackson, and various bits of US legislation, etc. It won some documentary awards and can be bought at Amazon.com.
Here is just a tid-bit they touch on about California that I found utterly disgusting and particularly heinous :
Here is just a tid-bit they touch on about California that I found utterly disgusting and particularly heinous :
In his January 1851 message to the California legislature, California Governor Peter H. Burnett promised "a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct." Newspapers cheered on the campaign. In 1853 the Yreka Herald called on the government to provide aid to "enable the citizens of the north to carry on a war of extermination until the last redskin of these tribes has been killed. Extermination is no longer a question of time--the time has arrived, the work has commenced and let the first man who says treaty or peace be regarded as a traitor." Other newspapers voiced similar sentiments.
Towns offered bounty hunters cash for every Indian head or scalp they obtained. Rewards ranged from $5 for every severed head in Shasta City in 1855 to 25 cents for a scalp in Honey Lake in 1863. One resident of Shasta City wrote about how he remembers seeing men bringing mules to town, each laden with eight to twelve Indian heads. Other regions passed laws that called for collective punishment for the whole village for crimes committed by Indians, up to the destruction of the entire village and all of its inhabitants. These policies led to the destruction of as many as 150 Native communities.
In both 1851 and 1852 California paid out $1 million--revenue from the gold fields--to militias that hunted down and slaughtered Indians. In 1857, the state issued $400,000 in bonds to pay for anti-Indian militias.
Towns offered bounty hunters cash for every Indian head or scalp they obtained. Rewards ranged from $5 for every severed head in Shasta City in 1855 to 25 cents for a scalp in Honey Lake in 1863. One resident of Shasta City wrote about how he remembers seeing men bringing mules to town, each laden with eight to twelve Indian heads. Other regions passed laws that called for collective punishment for the whole village for crimes committed by Indians, up to the destruction of the entire village and all of its inhabitants. These policies led to the destruction of as many as 150 Native communities.
In both 1851 and 1852 California paid out $1 million--revenue from the gold fields--to militias that hunted down and slaughtered Indians. In 1857, the state issued $400,000 in bonds to pay for anti-Indian militias.
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