america's native prisoners of war

http://www.ted.com/talks/aaron_huey.html?ref=nf

i love a lot to TED talks and this one is -- well -- breathtaking.

"This history that I just read to you."

A history that is so full of distortions and inaccuracies that it does not deserve the name 'history'.

To take but two examples, the 3: 20 mark, the hanging of 38 Sioux men "the largest mass execution in US history" an execution "ordered by Lincoln only two days after he signed the Emancipation Proclamation."

The truth is that actually on 28 September 1863 that 303 Sioux were sentenced to be hanged. Lincoln actually reduced that number to 39. Lincoln stopped the execution of 264.

That also glosses over the fact of the 'uprising' that something like 300-800 white settlers were killed by those same Sioux in a war that they started (although there were some justifications). Here's a small timeline

August 1862 - Annuity payments are late; Dakota demand future annuity payments be made directly to them, rather than through traders. Traders refuse to sell provisions on credit. Andrew Myrick, spokesman for the traders, says: "So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry, let them eat grass."

August 17 - Four Dakota kill five white settlers.

August 18 - Bands of Dakota kill 44 Americans in attacks on the Redwood Agency and on federal troops heading for the Agency.

August 19 - Minnesota Governor Ramsey names Col. Henry Sibley to command American volunteer forces. Sixteen settlers are killed around New Ulm. Settlers crowd into a small barricaded area of New Ulm.

August 23 - About 650 Dakota attack New Ulm. Town is burned; 34 die and 60 are wounded, but the barricaded area holds out.

August 25 - 2,000 New Ulm refugees head for Mankato, thirty miles away.

But let's pay no attention to the 300-800 dead white people. The real outrage, the real 'history' is the 38 Native Americans that were hanged.


Point 2 - 1890 at the 7: 10 mark he talks about the Wounded Knee massacre. In his telling, US troops surrounded a Sioux encampment and massacred Chief Bigfoot and 300 prisoners of war.

Wounded Knee was definitely a tragedy, but not, I believe a deliberate massacre. The intent was to disarm Bigfoot's group, but at the same time the soldiers were wary of being ambushed themselves. How, of course, can I know about intent? Well, here is what Dee Brown wrote about the night before the massacre.

"Because of the gathering darkness, Major Whitside decided to wait until morning before disarming his prisoners. He assigned them a camp area immediately to the south of the military camp, issued them rations and as there was a shortage of teepee covers, he furnished them several tents. Whitside ordered a stove placed in Big Foot's tent and sent a regimental surgeon to administer to the sick chief." p. 441

Does it make sense to provide rations, shelters and medical care to a group of people that you are just planning to slaughter the next day?

Here's one eyewitness account that tells the story a little bit differently than Ted does. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm

"During this time a medicine man, gaudily dressed and fantastically painted, executed the maneuvers of the ghost dance, raising and throwing dust into the air. He exclaimed 'Ha! Ha!' as he did so, meaning he was about to do something terrible, and said, 'I have lived long enough,' meaning he would fight until he died. Turning to the young warriors who were squatted together, he said 'Do not fear, but let your hearts be strong. Many soldiers are about us and have many bullets, but I am assured their bullets cannot penetrate us. The prairie is large, and their bullets will fly over the prairies and will not come toward us. If they do come toward us, they will float away like dust in the air.' I turned to Major Whitside and said, 'That man is making mischief,' and repeated what he had said. Whitside replied, 'Go direct to Colonel Forsyth and tell him about it,' which I did.

Forsyth and I went to the circle of warriors where he told me to tell the medicine man to sit down and keep quiet, but he paid no attention to the order. Forsyth repeated the order. Big Foot's brother-in-law answered, 'He will sit down when he gets around the circle.' When the medicine man came to the end of the circle, he squatted down. A cavalry sergeant exclaimed, 'There goes an Indian with a gun under his blanket!' Forsyth ordered him to take the gun from the Indian, which he did. Whitside then said to me, 'Tell the Indians it is necessary that they be searched one at a time.' The young warriors paid no attention to what I told them. I heard someone on my left exclaim, 'Look out! Look out!' I saw five or six young warriors cast off their blankets and pull guns out from under them and brandish them in the air. One of the warriors shot into the soldiers, who were ordered to fire into the Indians. I looked in the direction of the medicine man. He or some other medicine man approached to within three or four feet of me with a long cheese knife, ground to a sharp point and raised to stab me. He stabbed me during the melee and nearly cut off my nose. I held him off until I could swing my rifle to hit him, which I did. I shot and killed him in self-defense.

Troop 'K' was drawn up between the tents of the women and children and the main body of the Indians, who had been summoned to deliver their arms. The Indians began firing into 'Troop K' to gain the canyon of Wounded Knee creek. In doing so they exposed their women and children to their own fire. Captain Wallace was killed at this time while standing in front of his troops. A bullet, striking him in the forehead, plowed away the top of his head. I started to pull off my nose, which was hung by the skin, but Lieutenant Guy Preston shouted, 'My God Man! Don't do that! That can be saved.' He then led me away from the scene of the trouble."

In other stories there was a dispute with a partially deaf guy who didn't want to give up his gun and it accidentally went off in the struggle. In Ted's account though it just sounds like the troops surrounded the camp and started shooting.

He probably believes what he is reading, and also persuades many in the audience to believe it, but that does not make it true. It's really just one-sided propaganda about those evil old white people who take the best meat.