Genocide of the American Indians was the worst ethnic cleansing in history
By John Robles
An elder with the Mi'kmaq Nation, Dr. Daniel Paul, spoke with the VoR and revealed some of the true yet hidden history of the American Indian people, few of whom remain after the worst genocide in the history of all mankind. The Indians of the Americas practiced Democracy for centuries before the Europeans invaded and even the US Constitution was written based on Indian principles. The Indian people were a peaceful people who lived lives based on honor, mutual respect and reverence for the land.
In the third and final part of an interview with Indian Historian and Mik'maq elder Dr. Daniel Paul, the discussion continues regarding the genocide of the American indigenous peoples. Dr. Paul discusses the disingenuous "apology" (in 2012) by the US Government which was attached to a Defense Bill, the continued suppression of the real history of North America in the school systems of the continent and the continued institutionalized racism Native Americans face.
PART 1: Democracy existed in the Americas long before the Europeans invaded – Mi'kmaq Elder
PART 2: Indians were classified as wild animals – exclusive interview
Could a society that was based and started in that way, ever be called democratic or free or fair?
All these societies in Americas, with very few exceptions, were built on genocide. A lot of the indigenous people were wiped out. Some people with the estimate for the Caribbean Taíno people, for instance, as being somewhere in the neighborhood of 5-10 million when Columbus landed. Within 50 years they were practically extinct. When you look at the overall total, it is almost unbelievable, and they talk about barbarism and people don't discuss it too often but the Spaniards used human flesh to feed dogs. And scalp proclamations were one of the favorite things of the English here in the Americas, putting a price on the heads of men, women and children. And then the spreading the smallpox was another thing they used quite liberally in trying to eliminate populations. And then simple starvation, after they destroyed most of the food sources of the indigenous people and trading patterns, the people lived in a state of malnutrition and many were starving to death, and when you get to that state, even a common cold can be fatal to you. So, our population in the Americas was reduced, I would say, almost by 90% by time it was all over. And even in this day and age the Nigma, for instance, in Nova Scotia were down to 1,400 in 1850 and that stayed around the same until the 1940s, and then the Canadian government began to get a little bit of a conscience, or what have you, and started improving health services and food rations and so forth and so on. And today our population is up to about 25,000 now. We're slowly mature in making the comeback.
How are the other tribes ferrying in Canada and up to the United States?
The United States has owned up to the atrocities that went on there, there's an apology I believe, that was issued by the Congress in 2010 but as what I call a silent apology. It was never broadcast around the world or anything like that and it was part of a defense Procurement Bill that went through the Congress. But when you are looking at the overall thing, that is not what we need to be done in these countries. What we have to see is they change curriculums and began to place in those school curriculums, the real history of the peoples that were here before the Europeans invaded. And I don't call it discovery, I call it invasion. It was an invasion by people that were superiorly armed and they brought their wars to the Americas. The French and British were fighting almost constantly on this side of the water, at the same time fighting constantly on the European soil. So, they didn't bring peace and prosperity to the indigenous people in the Americas – we already had that. And we all had good standards of living and some people like to believe that all our ancestors were standing along the shores of the Americas, cheering on the Europeans for coming over and saving them and civilizing them and so forth and so on, which is a pile of bull.
You mentioned the Taíno people, I'm part Taíno Indian myself, why are groups such as Taíno listed as being extinct when actually some peoples exist?
What's happened here is, there are probably even some people with Sundiata blood in them. But when you can't find a member of a tribe that is full-blooded, that is the point where you would call that tribe extinct in the sense that they are no longer with us in that sense, the Biatok's were wiped out. I believe there may be a few people around with some Biatok blood in them but they didn't live in the traditional way or what have you.
Can you describe a little bit the present state of the tribes in Canada and the United States?
We live under the state of systemic racism. In the United States and Canada you can't have open discrimination against us anymore such as they had 30-40 years ago but we are still not viewed as equals in these societies and we are not treated as equals, and we are still seen by the vast majority of the people here, because of lack the lack of education, as people that came from barbarous tribes, savage tribes and not as people who came from civilized a community. So, until we can overcome that kind of perception and like I said before change curriculums in schools and begin to teach the truth, we still got a long way to go before we are treated as people who have come from civilization that had every right to continue to exist and prosper in this world, and stop demeaning our people in the sense that we were never a civilized people, where in fact, we were. And how to get that information out? It is slowly happening, it is going to take a long time and at the rate we're going, I think we'll be at it for a couple of centuries before we really make that final step. And one of the biggest steps has to be acceptance by Europeans that the genocide of the American Indians, the indigenous people of the Americas was probably one of the worst mass ethnic cleansings that this world has ever known and begin to make that part of history lessons, so forth and so on. There were great civilizations on this side of the water, there were rural civilizations, hunter-gather civilizations, there were city dwellers and what have you, and all these. And how many people in Americas or around the world know that fact? Very few. And the reason that they don't know is because it's not taught.
By the ancestors of the people who committed genocide on them.
Thank you very much. I really appreciate you speaking with me.
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