I do get so very tired of all the ignorance, misinformation, and general racism that is so deeply ingrained in North American society when it comes to Native Americans. My latest annoyance? Dolt45 opens his yawp, says ignorant things. I know, I know, just another day ending in -y. It is nearly impossible to keep up with all the stupid, vicious, and just plain wrong that comes selling out of his mouth (or twitter account) on a daily basis.
Current stupidity to get up my nose? Der Orange Gropenfuhrer’s recent speech to the graduating class of the Naval Academy. As usual, Hair Furor could not miss an opportunity to once again show his ignorance and arrogance. As reported in Newsweek he said:
"Together there is nothing Americans can't do, absolutely nothing," Trump told 2018 graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy. “In recent years, and even decades, too many people have forgotten that truth. They've forgotten that our ancestors trounced an empire, tamed a continent, and triumphed over the worst evils in history."
Apparently no one told Moldy Marmalade about indigenous American history and early settlers. Apparently for the last seventy-odd years of his life he has been oblivious to all those dippy Thanksgiving pageants, which among all the saccharine pap does at least usually acknowledge that Indians taught the grossly incompetent Puritans how to grow corn. They came to this continent hopelessly ignorant, and unfortunately Tisquantum taught them how to grow corn. I say unfortunately because Native hospitality was ultimately returned with slaughter and theft. Then more genocide, broken treaties, residential schools, sterilizations, and other assorted garbage.
Other Native crops that white colonists learned to exploit from indigenous farmers: squash, beans, sweet potatoes, and tobacco. Other crops included melons and jerusalem artichokes (not as popular a crop today, it seems, but quite tasty I think). Colonists also eventually were able to buy or grow other crops from central and south America: chocolate, tomatoes, potatoes, quinoa and amaranth. Many of these crops were adapted around the world and have become important to many farming economies and regional cuisines.
But Preznit Kidney Stone apparently believes that before some unwashed bible-thumping Europeans showed up, there were no farmers here, and the continent was ‘untamed’. I guess we are left to presume the continent was home to nothing but wild animals and savage subhumans. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Most tribes WERE farmers, or at a minimum horticulturalists*, managing numerous seed, berry and root crops; as well as regular pruning of basketry plants. On the west coast, there were even managed clam harvest beds. This was NOT an untamed continent- this was and is a continent well known, and managed for millenia through harvest, pruning and timed setting of fires. The settlers were too arrogant to see or understand this. Indeed it is only fairly recently have academics begun to try to understand indigenous land management. But the myth of savage-scraping-for-a-living versus civilized-colonial-farmers persists. And Preznit Agent Orange is propagating this myth again. No surprise, since he is a well-noted racist who has nothing but contempt for — well darn near anyone and everyone really. But Dolt45 In Chief is not the only one who clings to these stupid myths. They persist and persist, based on ignorance. Doubtless these myths are a big hit with his base.
*For more info on indigenous horticulturalism of western North America, see “Taming the Wild” by Kat Anderson, “Keeping it Living” edited by Douglas Deur and Nancy Turner, or “Indians, Fire, and the Pacific Northwest” edited by Robert Boyd.