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I think if you take most families and go back a few generations, to
somewhere in the 1700's or 1800's, you would find that their ancestors
were chased off or swindled out of their land by somebody elses ancestors.

My ancestors fled Germany around 1870.   Although the family history isn't
clear, we believe that my ancestor lost a brother in one of the Kaisers
adventures, and didn't want to lose his young son.   He fled to America. 
To our knowledge, he never killed anyone, white or Indian.   He bought a
lot in LeSeur MN, built a house and went to work for the railroad, a job
that later killed him.

Some other ancestors fled Norway after some catastrophe resulted in the
loss of their small farm.  I don't know any details of that.   They bought
some land in Canada, and farmed there.

Years ago, I heard a Native American, I forget who, say that he wasn't mad
at the whites because they stole the land fair and square, and thats just
the way it was.   As much as we might want to look back in horror at how
the current owners came in possession of Winona or Mankota or Saint Paul,
the fact is that history is a long and ongoing tale of people trying to
take advantage of other people.

What we can do today, rather than look back wistfully or shamefully at the
past, is to look at who society is abusing TODAY and try to do the right
thing.   Yesterday is gone, and I didn't have anything to do with it.



> -------------------------------------------------
> Pamela Frantum said: "I have trouble celebrating an historic event if the
> whole story isn't included, especially when it deals with the removal of a
> people and their culture."

--
Bob Treumann, Saint Paul
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