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johncmcleod
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Coeur d'Alene, ID, USA
Jan 2002 time: 21:21
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True, the French fur-trappers did intermarry with the Indians. However, the whites rarely paid for the land from the natives. The Quakers were the only group that were good about this. The Native Americans didn't have that much use for money, and it wouldn't be worth it to get money for moving from their land. This is because a) they wouldn't have anywhere to go, the west was occupied by other tribes, b) money wasn't really that important to them, and c) any tribalistic society becomes identified with the land they live in. To them, their land was God. It wouldn't be something they'd just walk away from.
What really happened was the US claimed all of the land, and when the natives tried to stop white settlers from coming in they were defeated and moved further west. But IMO the worst of the genocide was when the white men murdered all of the buffalo on the plains and destroyed the native way of life, then forced them onto reservations and tried to 'civilize' them through schooling.
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