@librarianlaura3697

1 month ago

You have fallen victim to a common myth called "infantilization." It is the racist belief that most or all Native Americans were/are innocent children of nature who always lived in harmony with others. In fact, they were complex human beings no different than any others. Your claim that "most indigenous societies in North America were relatively egalitarian" is completely false. Many tribes practiced slavery long before Europeans arrived, including the Haida, Tlingit, Comanche, Pawnee, Yurok, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and many others. Some groups also practiced the regular human sacrifice of slaves, prisoners of war, and even their own people. Events were very common and large-scale among the Aztec, Maya, and Inca, frequently atop specially built pyramids. Aztec chronicles record that 80,400 victims were sacrificed during a four-day celebration of the founding of the main temple in the city of Tenochtitlán in 1487 AD. But human sacrifice was not limited to the southwest. The Skiri Pawnees, Cahokia/Mound Builders, and other cultures also did it (though less frequently). In some places ritualistic cannibalism of sacrifice victims took place- look up Chaco Canyon in Colorado and Aztalan in Wisconsin. And then there's the treatment of women. Yeah, sure, there were a couple of cultures where women were leaders, but there were also many that treated women less than human, with women being forced to do most or all of the manual labor. Finally, the idea that Native Americans saw European cities as poor is ridiculous. Some Native Americans might have seen lower class laborers as poor, but by the 15th and certainly the 16th century, even the peasants of Europe commonly owned items like metal knives and axes, metal pins and needles, metal pots, loom-woven linen and wool clothing dyed in bright colors, glass beads, bells, mirrors, and other objects which most Native Americans did not have. Thats why much of the European trading with Native Americans was so successful- one side had a ton of furs and timber, the other side had a ton of manufactured household goods. Both sides were trading away things they saw as plentiful and cheap, and getting things they saw as rare and expensive.

6 |