American Minute with Bill Federer
Human migration, hunter-gatherers to agriculture, & 8 different Indian policies over 500 years
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The Pulitzer Prize winning book
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies,
written by Jared Diamond (1997), documented that throughout human history,
hunter-gathers
were always subdued by people groups who had
transitioned
to
agriculture.
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The first plants to be cultivated were:
wheat, barley, rye, oats, lentils, peas, chickpeas, beans, almonds, and olives.
Flax was cultivated as a source for linseed oil and fiber for clothes, ropes, rugs, bedding, curtains, and sails.
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Agricultural domestication
of
plants
led to the
domestication of animals,
such as:
donkey, horse, camel, pig, chicken, cattle
and
oxen.
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Harvests led to
storage techniques, methods of transporting, record-keeping, irrigation,
and
the smelting of metals for tools.
Record-keeping developed into
writing,
which allowed for
knowledge
and
ideas
to pass to subsequent generations, creating the cumulative effect of advancing civilization.
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Reeds
and
clay
were used for building materials.
Excess crops led to
trading
and the
exchange
of
goods
and
ideas.
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Land used for farming gradually left the
soil depleted of nutrients,
so
more land
would be cleared.
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As
deforestation
and
soil depletion
took its toll, it
led agriculturally-based civilizations to
look for more land,
and thus become
expansionist
, with exception of the Nile river valley where annual flooding replenished the soil.
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Expansion of
agriculturally developed civilizations
crowded out
less advanced hunter-gathers,
and led to conflict, wars, and
military conquests.
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Displaced peoples
migrated
further away.
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Jared Diamond, in his book
Guns, Germs, and Steel,
documented that the phenomenon of
agricultural
cultures
displacing hunter-gatherer
cultures occurred
worldwide.
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It occurred:
- from the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia to Central Asia,
- to Europe,
- to Africa,
- to India,
- to the Far East,
- to Indonesia,
- to the Pacific Islands, and
- to North America,
- then Central and South America.
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Archaeologists and anthropologists generally agree that the most probable explanation for
humans migrating to the Americas,
is that sometime in the ancient past,
people traveled from Asia
and
Siberia
across the
Bering Strait,
which was either frozen or at lower sea levels, to the
North American continent,
then spread
south.
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These
aboriginal first inhabitants
of the Americas were largely
neolithic (new stone age) hunter-gatherers,
as the
abundance of grasslands
and
wild animals
provided little motivation to transition to
agriculture.
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Notable exceptions were semi-bronze age civilizations of:
- Mississippi Cahokia,
- Mesoamerica, and
- Andean.
These cultivated maize, beans, squashes, chili peppers, and cotton.
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Most native tribes became expert in
hunting
and gathering, and, though no fault of their own, remained limited in their development of technical innovations, manufacturing skills, record-keeping, and written communication, features which usually accompanied
agricultural societies.
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At the time of Columbus' first voyage,
Europe, China, Japan, India, Persia,
and
Ottoman Turks,
had the cumulative knowledge of
several thousand years of technological advancements,
in ship building, astronomy, navigation, steel weapons, armor, gunpowder, cannons, communication, domestication of horses and cattle, and battle tactics.
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From the initial arrival of Europeans in the Western Hemisphere
five centuries
ago,
attitudes and policies
toward
native Americans
went through
eight general phases:
1) Spanish enslavement and conversions;
2) French missionaries, assimilation, and evangelization;
3) English and American treaties, missionaries, land encroachment, and wars;
4) Democrat Party policy of Indian removal;
5) Republican Party policy of Indian reservations;
6) Big government assimilation efforts;
7) Casinos:
8) Financial incentives to allow access for Islamization.
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1) Spanish enslavement and conversions:
The general timeline began when
Muslim Turks
conquered
Constantinople
in 1453, cutting off the
land routes
to
India
and
China.
In 1492, Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella drove Muslims out of Spain and then sent Columbus to find a sea route to India and China.
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Columbus sailed west and thought he had found
India,
so he referred to the people he met as
"Indians,"
and the name stuck.
Spain sent conquistadors to explore for treasures, notably:
- Balboa (1513);
- Ponce de León (1513, 1521);
- Cortés (1518-1521);
- Pizarro (1524-1532);
- Desoto (1539-1542); and
- Coronado (1540-1542).
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In one aspect, it was
the world's most advanced Renaissance military power,
Spain, coming into contact with scattered peoples that were technically still in the
bronze age.
Spaniards
conquered Indians by siding with oppressed minorities against the ruling classes, who were, in certain cases,
demanding captives for human sacrifice
and
cannibalism
in their pagan worship of spirits and nature.
Spanish enslaved many
Indians
in
Central and South America,
being supported ideologically by the Spanish
humanist Juan Ginés de Sepúlveda,
who argued Indians were less than human.
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Spanish Catholic priest
Bartolomé de las Casas
defended the
Indians,
arguing that they were indeed fully human, and as such should be treated fairly.
He helped pressure the King of Spain to issue New Laws
ending slavery.
Though conquistadors and humanists, such as
Sepúlveda,
were
greed-motivated,
there were also missionaries, like
Bartolomé de las Casas,
who were
Gospel-motivated.
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Once
enslavement of Indians was outlawed,
numerous Spanish and Portuguese plantation owners began purchasing Africans from Muslim slave markets and bringing them to the New World.
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2) French missionaries, assimilation, and evangelization:
In North America, the
French
arrived in
Canada
beginning with
Jacques Cartier's
voyages (1534-1542).
French fur trappers enjoyed relatively friendly relations with Indians.
French Catholic missionaries were received favorably from the time of
Pere Jacques Marquette
to
Pierre-Jean DeSmet.
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3) English and American treaties, missionaries, land encroachment,
and
wars:
English settlers landed in Virginia in 1607.
In exchange for furs, some traded
knives, guns,
and
alcohol
with the
Indians,
with a secondary agenda of pushing them back.
Others had a charitable agenda, wanting to treat Indians with respect, such as
William Penn,
who insisted on dealing fairly with them. In disputes with Indians, Penn had juries be comprised of six settlers and six Indians.
Missionaries, caring for their eternal welfare, led evangelizing efforts among Indians, such as
John Eliot, David Brainerd
and
Count Zinzendorf of Moravia.
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Pilgrims
settled in
Massachusetts
and made a long-lasting treaties
with the Indians, beginning with Governor John Carter
and
Chief Massasoit.
Chief Massaoit
died leaving his son
Philip
to become chief in 1662.
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King (Chief) Philip
and the new governor of Massachusetts,
Josiah Winslow,
did not have good relations, as
Winslow
did not take their concerns seriously enough.
The situation deteriorated, leading to the outbreak of
King Philip's War,
1675-1678.
After the
Indians
lost, significant areas of their land were confiscated.
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Later, between 1754 and 1763, the
French and Indian War
broke out, with
Indians
being pulled into the larger, centuries' old European conflict between the
British
and the
French.
Many
Indians
sided with the
French.
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During this war, the young British-American Colonel
George Washington
built Fort Necessity on Great Meadows in 1754. He received a letter from his brother Lawrence's father-in-law, Mr. William Fairfax:
"I will not doubt your having
public prayers in the camp,
especially when the
Indian families are your guests,
that they, seeing your plain manner of worship, may have their
curiosity excited to be informed
why we do not use the
ceremonies of the French,
which being well explained to their understandings, will more and more
dispose them to receive our baptism,
and
unite in strict bonds of cordial friendship."
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When
France lost the war,
all the
French territory west of the Appalachians
to the
Mississippi
was ceded to
Britain.
The
Indians
who had
sided with the French lost large areas of land.
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Later, during the
Revolutionary War,
General
George Washington
was visited at his Middle Brook military encampment on May 12, 1779, by
Delaware Indian Chiefs
who brought three youths.
Washington
assured them:
"Brothers: I am glad you have brought three of the
Children of your principal Chiefs
to be educated with us. I am sure Congress will open the
Arms of love
to them, and will look upon them
as their own Children,
and will have them educated accordingly.
This is a great mark of your confidence and of your desire to preserve the friendship between the
Two Nations to the end of time, and to become One people with your Brethren of the United States ..."
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Washington
continued:
"You do well
to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and
above all, the religion of Jesus Christ.
These will make you a greater and happier people than you are.
Congress will do everything they can to assist you in this wise intention; and to tie the knot of friendship and union so fast, that nothing shall ever be able to loose it ...
And I pray God He may make your Nation wise and strong."
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After the Revolution, the Indians who had sided with the British lost lands.
George Washington
retired to Mount Vernon where he wrote to the President of the Continental Congress, February 8, 1785:
"Toward the latter part of the year 1783, I was honored with a letter from the Countess of Huntington, briefly reciting her benevolent intention of
spreading Christianity among the Tribes of Indians
inhabiting our Western Territory;
and expressing a desire of my advice and assistance to carry this charitable design into execution.
I wrote her Ladyship ... that I would give every aid in my power, consistent with the ease and tranquility, to which I meant to devote the remainder of my life, to carry her plan into effect ...
Her Ladyship has spoken so feelingly and sensibly, on the religious and benevolent purposes of the plan, that no language of which I am possessed, can add aught to enforce her observations."
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President Washington
addressed Congress, November 6, 1792:
"Laws will expire during the present session. Among these, that which regulates
trade ... with the Indian tribes ...
Your common deliberations ... will, I trust, be productive ... to our constituents ... by conciliating more and more their ultimate suffrage ... and confirm their attachment to that Constitution ... upon which, under Divine Providence, materially depend ... their happiness."
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On AUGUST 29, 1796,
President George Washington
dictated a
"Talk"
to the
Cherokee Nation:
"Beloved Cherokees: The wise men of the United States meet once a year, to consider what will be for the good of all their people ...
I have thought that a meeting of your wise men once or twice a year would be alike useful to you ...
I now send my best wishes to the
Cherokees,
and
pray the Great Spirit to preserve them."
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During the War of 1812, many
Indians
again
sided with the British,
such as in the
Fort Mims Massacre,
or
Chief Tecumseh
in the battle for Detroit and the Northwest Territory.
When the
British lost,
the
Indians
that sided with them l
ost more land.
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4) Democrat Party policy of Indian removal:
When gold was discovered in Georgia in 1828,
greed-motivated
settlers encroachment onto
Indian lands.
The big-government solution was the
removal policy,
passed by
Congress
as the
Indian Removal Act of 1830.
It was signed by the
first Democrat President, Andrew Jackson.
The
Federal Government
forced thousands of
Indians
to migrate on the
Trail of Tears
to Oklahoma.
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5) Republican Party policy of Indian reservations:
Republican President Ulysses S. Grant
ended the removal policy and began
the reservation policy,
encouraging Christian missions among the Indians.
This policy did preserve the Indians' tribal identity, but in solving one problem, it created another.
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6) Big government assimilation efforts:
In 1887, the
Federal Government
attempted another
big government solution
with the Dawes Act, where to have
Indians
assimilate, children would be removed from their families and reeducated in a Federally controlled
common-core type program.
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When it was discovered that
Indian Reservations
had
valuable resources
of oil, gas, minerals, and gold,
greed-motivated politicians
found ways to
take more Indian reservation land.
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The
Indian Reorganization Act of 1934
was supposed to give Indians more control over their lives but ironically resulted in the Federal Government getting more involved in internal tribal affairs.
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Henry Ford
is credited with stating:
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him, better take a closer look at the
American Indian."
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Another
big government solution
was a
Relocation Program
in the 1950's which brought tens of thousands of
Indians i
nto inner cities for low-wage jobs and more
tribal lands
were transferred to
private ownership.
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Republican President Nixon
repudiated this policy and instituted
laws bolstering tribal sovereignty,
though this sovereignty was gradually eroded by state and local jurisdictions.
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7) Casinos:
The
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988,
brought casinos, bingo halls, and other greed-motivated gaming interests onto
Indian reservations.
Gambling operations
have increased to include 460 in 2011, run by 240 tribes, with total annual revenue of $27 billion, accompanied by significant
contributions to political parties and candidates.
Recipients of these political contributions promoted expansion of gambling, as well as the morally liberal issues that accompany it.
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8) Financial incentives to allow access for Islamization:
In recent years, doors have opened for
Islamic infiltration,
which historically has spread by exploiting
feelings of victimhood
among segments of the population.
Some have even fabricated histories of an early Islamic presence in America.
Attempts to make inroads have occurred not just on
Indian Reservations,
but among indigenous populations in the Caribbean, and Central and South America, namely:
Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
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In 2006,
Nation of Islam
leader
Louis Farrakhan
visited the
Navajo Nation
in Arizona.
In 2012, U.S. Rep. Tom Cole R-Okla, introduced a bill to allow Muslims from Turkey special access to Indians, stating:
"I was approached by the Turkish Coalition of America who have a deep interest in Turkey and American Indians ... Turkey's continued interest in expanding business and cultural ties with the American Indian community ... across the U.S."
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John Berrey, chairman of the Quapaw Tribe (Oklahoma), claimed:
"The Turkish and Native American peoples are beginning to come together under their own momentum to develop broader and deeper economic and cultural ties."
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Beginning in 2008, the Turkish Coalition of America has awarded scholarships for Native American students to study abroad in Turkey.
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The Turkish Coalition of America spent millions flying Native American tribal leaders to Turkey, as reported on its 2010 IRS Form 990: "sponsorship of educational travel for congressional members and staff as well as Native American leaders."
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The Indian Country Today Media Network
reported:
"The first Native American Business Cooperation Trip to Turkey, attracting 20 leaders from 17 Native American tribes. .. met with Turkish high officials, including Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu," as reported by the Associated Press.
In 2011, Turkey's deputy minister for foreign trade was the first foreign government official ever to address the American Indian Business Trade Fair and the Reservation Economic Summit (RES) in Las Vegas.
The Warm Springs Tribes in Oregon presented Turkish government leaders with a gift at the residence of the Turkish ambassador to the United States in November 2013.
Indianz.com
reported (9/9/15): "Top officials from Turkey have indeed reached out to Indian Country."
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Turkey's advances into the Native American tribes are promoted by Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP) who have been moving Turkey towards a more fundamentalist sharia Islamic State.
Some suspect Erdogan desires to position himself as caliph of a reemerging Islamic Caliphate.
The Economist
reported (2/4/16):
"Mr Erdogan made a telling remark ... 'Democracy is like a train,' he said, 'you get off once you have reached your destination.'"
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The Agence France-Presse
reported Turkish businesses are acting as a front for Islamist extremists:
"Turkish companies of creating a shadow economy, using double accounting and propagating nationalistic and extremist ideology ...
Long wary of the influence of Islamic fundamentalism ... secular authorities appear to be linking Turkish private business to the activities of the Nurcus, an Islamic group that is banned in the country."
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Indian reservations
along America's
southern borders,
such at the Tohono, are being overrun by illegals which include drug gangs infiltrated by
Islamic groups, such as ISIS, Hamas, and Hezbollah.
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The Arizona desert is littered with items, including Islamic prayer rugs, Qur'ans, Spanish-Arabic dictionaries, Pakistani Urdu-English dictionaries, even an Iranian book celebrating suicide bombers.
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Illegal OTM's (Other Than Mexicans) include Muslims from Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan, Yemen, Qatar, Algeria, Somalia, Malaysia, Libya, Eritrea, Indonesia, Lebanon, and the Philippines.
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Throughout the five centuries of
Indian policies
in the
Americas,
there have regrettably been
greed-motivated individuals and politicians
who wanted to take advantage of native Americans.
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Thankfully, there have also been
Gospel-motivated individuals
who insisted on treating native Americans fairly, such as
William Penn,
and improve their well-being, such as
Bartolome' de Las Casas,
who wrote:
"The main goal of
divine Providence
in the
discovery of these tribes
... is ... the
conversion and well-being of souls,
and to this goal everything temporal must necessarily be directed."
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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