> Doug Henwood wrote:
> >
> > Can anyone recommend anything good to read on Native Americans/Indians?
>
I found Ronald Wright's _Stolen Continents_ a real education. His account
of the Spanish conquest is incredible. If I remember correctly, Wright
estimates that 9/10s of the Indian population died from new diseases
before the actual military conquest occurred. New research on the (much
later) contact here along the Fraser River in B.C. also suggests that 9
out of 10 died in smallpox epidemics (previous research had estimated
death rates of about 25%).
Such estimates have real political importance, particularly in light of
the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision that Indians DO have title to
much of the land mass of Canada (including most of BC), and establishing
continuous occupation and use as one of the criteria for proving title.
I look forward to more discussion of the alliances between Indians and the
French and British and Americans against each other. Any effort to paint
Indians as reactionary for lining up with the British against the
Americans is surely out of line. I happened to go to a high
school named after the Indian leader Tecumseh, who provided the
majority of the actual fighting forces on the British side in the
war of 1812, but who was abandoned in battle and killed, and the
British promises to provide land for his fighters were, of course, never
honored. But they didn't tell us about that in high school!
Canadian marxist historian Stanley Ryerson quotes an 18th century
historian about the Iroqois strategy: "to hold the scale evenly balanced
betwen the two [white] nations, whose mututal jealosy the Iroqois sought
by both and ensured their safety". Similarly, he quotes a New York
official of the alliances in the earlier French period: "To preserve a
balance between us and the French is the great ruling principle of modern
Indian politics."
Bill Burgess
