While the “majority” of my ancestry is from European settlers I still have a significant amount of “Indigenous” ancestry as well. And have many relatives that are enrolled tribal members. I was born in the Creek Nation.
We all have trouble with being objective when emotions get involved.
People lose sight of ,or simply ignore the facts if they don’t fit their narrative.
Yes Native peoples were conquered and dispossessed of land.
Yes promises were broken.
Yes massacres have taken place.
At the same time native people also committed massacres against Europeans and other native people as well.
The vast majority of native peoples who perished did so due to diseases which they had no immunity to… You can’t blame Europeans for this , they had zero control over this. Modern medicine and the science behind understanding the diseases didn’t exist even in Europe.
There’s probably not a single ethnic group in existence that hasn’t at some point conquered another or been concerned by another.
While we shouldn’t forget history, we also shouldn’t look at it in any way other than to objectively consider the facts of what happened.
We can’t judge any of our ancestors by our current social and moral values… because times and circumstances were far different then.
What we can do is strive to be better human beings and better neighbors to all.
I don’t have Native friends, White friends etc, I have friends and that’s it.
Same goes for my family members.. they’re just family…
Today many nations have come together to be one nation… and if we love our neighbors we can create a future that all can be proud of.
(A photo of me as a wee lad , the product of loving relationships between people of different cultures.)