Hi Dennis, Those are definitely some good points. My over all point was to point out to dark that a lot of history such as the Native Americans gets passed over in the history books and only mentioned in passing. Therefore what we call history is very selective based on who did what when and how it contributed to the modern world rather than studying history for history's sake.
Howe we got on this topic is that Dark suggested that I set my vampire game in Spain. I wanted to point out to Dark that I'm rather unfamiliar with Spanish history as its not something an American student would study. Like Native Americans if it didn't directly contribute to the modern history of America it was pretty much ignored or mentioned in passing. Therefore I'm woefully unprepared to write a game set in medieval Spain without a lot of background research going into the project. Off the top of my head I can't name more than a couple of cities in Spain let alone write a comprehensive history of that country. :D Cheers! On 9/6/12, Dennis Towne <[email protected]> wrote: > Thomas, > > I'm part Navajo and have lived most of my life in the western US, > where native americans are quite common and there's a lot of indian > history. Even when I was a child, very little of what I saw was > negative. Out here, native american history is widely taught and > understood, because it's a part of the region's history. That said, > we really only know about the tribes native to this area, and for a > long time I was only peripherally aware of those that are big on the > east coast. > > Even with this level of regional history, native americans are usually > mentioned only in passing in history courses, unless the course is > specifically about them. There's a very good reason for this: native > americans didn't contribute much to modern history compared to other > things at the time. That's not a very politically correct thing to > say, but it's true - the hundreds of minor indian battles and > skirmishes over the decades, all of them combined, pale in comparison > to the civil war, or either of the world wars. The simple fact of the > matter is that there were a lot more white men, and more men equals > more created history. > > The great transformational factors that really ripped up and changed > society were not the tribes fighting for land on the fringes of the > country; those changes were wrought by the presses, by the locomotive, > by the internal combusion engine, steam engine, mass manufacture, and > ridiculously bloody war in the style of the white man. > > Of course it's easy to look back, or even look at where we are today, > and say that native americans were cheated out of a lot. But to say > that they were equally cheated out of their rightful spot in the > history texts takes it a bit too far. Mormons have arguably had a > bigger final impact on the country, and I see very little material on > their exodus in the history texts compared to native americans. > > How did we get to this topic anyway? This seems more than a little > off base for the list. > > Dennis Towne > > Alter Aeon MUD > http://www.alteraeon.com --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://mail.audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
