Back in August 2018 I wrote about more well-rounded, more objective, and more even-handed American history of the late 19th-century that often is overlooked, intentionally or not, by our modern media, 2-5 minute fast-paced journalism, and in our educational curriculums; curriculums from middle school up to private university standards. What history is that you ask?
It is the shared history, or lack of, our nation’s infancy, growth and expansion by Manifest Destiny and the Dawes Act of 1887, to name just two. It all but ignores a very human side of the cultures and Native American tribes which had already inhabited all of North America, including within the modern borders of the USA, for well over 15- to about 30-millennia before the white man of Europe arrived. Should this portion of authentic American history be stamped in glory and hubris or by some degrees shame and genocide? I know exactly what I label that time in American history. What, why, and how do you or will you label it?
I revisited my blog-post Authentic American History because of Netflix’s new release this past week entitled “Sitting Bull.” As I stated in the August 2018 post:
“I am a big enthusiast of history and personal stories of the past from various perspectives. Why you ask? Because they allow ME to choose where more of the truth and reality of events can be deciphered rather than hearing or reading only one version of those stories and events.”
Normally, I do not care for the History Channel’s overly hyped-up, overly dramatic cinema of actual historical events as they played out. The Channel and its parent corporation, A+E Global Media often go overboard and willingly admit that in order to capture younger audiences—with attention spans of maybe 10-minutes—executives, producers, directors, and actors must hype-up key points of the plot and narrative, sometimes sacrificing the context of historical events. The top corporate executives are fine with “some” cinematic license, or slack-on-facts, to juice-up, fancy-up, grab the younger modern audiences short attention with modern Euro-American music and graphic, bloody battle scenes and not let them rest. Whether it is all pristine, historical, verified facts doesn’t matter so much.
But this particular two-part series had Leonardo DiCaprio as executive director, an A+E Global choice that I would give a long, fair chance and consideration. I was pleasantly surprised.
On top of this fine docu-drama were acclaimed scholars of the American West Era such as Dr. Elizabeth Rule, PhD from Brown and Yale Universities, and none other than Guy Jones whose great-great-grandfather, Chief Gall, fought with Sitting Bull at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Guy Jones shared all of his vast knowledge about Chief Gall, and the Hunkpapa band of Lakota Indians who stood up to and fought against aggressive U.S. westward expansion and the U.S. Army’s atrocities and war-crimes against his ancestors and people.
The entire cast of Sitting Bull is packed with great contributing historians as well, such as Christy S. Coleman, MA – Hampton University, Dr. Douglas Brinkley, PhD – Georgetown University, and Dr. Edward T. O’Donnell, PhD – Columbia University, all providing perspectives surrounding Sitting Bull and the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota tribes. Also featured in the two-part series was Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and others that played significant roles in the fate of the Sioux nations. I recommend watching this docu-drama series if for no other reason than it tells the true history of these chiefs and peoples of the Great Plains from their perspective and personal, firsthand accounts passed down from generation to generation. They still “live” today along with their traditional customs and beliefs.
∼ ∼ ∼ § ∼ ∼ ∼
However, there was another recognition I gained from watching this excellent docudrama series. It was disturbing to me because the series showed how much appalling history we (white) Americans are repeating or allowing to repeat since the 1850’s and into the 21st-century today. What is it? Why haven’t we learned once and for all the worst times of human history, the clear behaviors of war-crimes, genocide, and atrocities on non-combatant civilians, even on children?
I hope you will watch the series Sitting Bull because in between the lines I couldn’t help but recognize the similarities, in some cases the identical behaviors, of crimes against humanity committed against the Native Americans. More poignantly I realized how indistinguishable our American white ancestors treated (removed, exterminated) those people they labelled as “savages” and “blood-thirsty barbarians” under the guise of “Divine Ordination” and those behaviors and treatment by the Nazis and SS under the Third Reich.
And now today, inside our own national borders and abroad, what is happening in Gaza, Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran, or what happened in the Caribbean Sea and Venezuela, or how I.C.E. and our current DHS is treating normal U.S. citizens as well as well-behaved legal immigrants in detention and in their court hearings! Are we going backwards toward the Wannsee Conference and A Final Solution, so to speak, of atrocities against humanity all the way back to Sitting Bull, the Sioux nations, and all other Native Americans wiped out? Are we back to that point or nearing it? …
So Americans… it must be asked, have we really evolved for the better after only 150-years and Sitting Bull? If you never learn the painful lessons of deep regret done in history, then how will you avoid repeating them in the future? Have we really progressed past those previous times and eras of sheer brutality, massacres, genocide, and depravation of societal values for other “different” peoples and cultures? I know what my answer is and has been for some time. What is your answer?
The Professor’s Convatorium © 2025 by Professor Taboo is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
The Professor's Convatorium 
There’s a purdy good book by David Berreby on this subject, Us and Them: Understanding Your Tribal Mind that deals specifically with this issue, I’ve tried several times to finish it, but non-fiction really isn’t my thing, especially after I learned about E-prime. But I digress …
Berreby suggests it’s a combo thingie of both a learned behavior and an evolutionary survival mechanism leftover from a much more violent past of our species.
We have certainly evolved with notions about trade, empathy, karma and compassion since those early hunter/gatherer days, so I don’t know why “stranger danger” still persists.
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Hatred of the Other, fear of the Other, and superiority over the Other are all things taught by one generation to the next, particularly if they are of European descent. One must learn about the Other if we are ever to find true community, but that is the hard way, not the easy way, and humans seem to love “the path of least resistance.”
Being part indigenous and part European I had to learn about each at the same time. If I had to make a choice, I would choose my aboriginal self. For the most part, we know why we are here. The other half exists on not finding out about the Other. Kinda like MAGAts, who accept and believe anything they are told by certain people.
So let’s forget about the past, no matter how horrible that might be, and let us concentrate on the now! We share the same land. We need to learn how to live toyether in peace.
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In this millennium and the previous one, I think it’s less about the psychology of tribalism — hard-wired or taught — and more about covetousness of an area for westward expansion. By the time of Sitting Bull, the Europeans had been on the North American continent for 200 years, fighting first for independence, The War of 1812, and a Civil War.
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Agree Kamchak! Well said. 👏
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Though I agree with most all you’ve stated in this comment rawgod, there is one minor bone-of-contention that I will respectfully rebut. 😉😁
You wrote:
I would say we should not forget about the past, especially the modern past, i.e. Civil War & slavery, Indian Wars, all wars in fact and how/why they started, but particularly WW2, and the slaughter, massacres, and wars currently ongoing. How can we learn from our ancestor’s grave mistakes, if we “forget about the past” and yes, no matter how horrible those mistakes were? How will the living generations not make the same (exact?) mistakes of the past, if we/they never painfully learn from them? Life is not all about joy, happiness, goody-goody feelings 24/7, and no challenges that cause pause or pain.
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I guess I wasn’t quite clear. My apologies. I did not mean to say we should be unaware of the past, but to get away from generational atrocity-memory hatreds. I think as SAQ tried to say, she is not responsible for the actions of her forebears. I will never forget the crimes against humanity committed against aboriginal peoples all over the world, nor will I like it, but we are in the 21st century. We must forget even if we cannot forgive. (Although assholes like Trump do stir up past feelings.)
We must move on. Peace must be our mutual goal.
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Rawgod, I believe all three of us are essentially saying the same thing, in the same spirit, but different wording structure.
Silence, inaction to not repeat history is my biggest beef/bone. Yet, we seem to keep doing it. Why?
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Good question. And I actually have an answer, right or wrong, for you.
1. We let people govern who have who have no idea how a government works.
2. We let just about anyone run for office (in a democracy/republic) without weeding out those that WANT TO GOVERN. Wanting to govern usually speaks to having an idea of how everyone else SHOULD live except the person who wants to run.
A. While in an autocratic government picking leaders means bowing down to power without a means of control.
3. Letting elected officials determine their own salary and perks, and also letting them determine their own pension plan.
4. (Sorry folks.) Letting anyone of a particular age or older vote for people who aren’t qualified to hold office, or even those who are. The 2016 and 2024 elections are extreme examples of fools voting for fools.
You did not ask for remedies, PT, but, then you probably never expected anyone to answer your first question. You don’t know rawgod.
REMEDIES
1. Grade 9 – Mandatory for all: A full class on governments: What they do and how they do it. The curriculum to be written by long time bureaucrats who have worked in various sections over a minimum 20 year under all political parties and are not overly biased towards one political party or philosophy. A potential government worker or candidate must achieve at least a B+ grade or higher in the class.
2. Grade 10 – A mandatory course on political philosophy written by retired politicians of every persuasion. All political candidates must pass the above class with at least a B- AND pass a psychological in-depth series of tests to root out bullies, egomaniacs, extremists of any philosophy or belief system, and/or those with untreated mental conditions.
A. An independent arm of decision makers who can call out potential “strong men or women” not to stop autocrats from taking power violently, but to watch for anyone building a group culture of people with aspirations of overpowering and taking control of a nation. (Maybe this is impossible, but I would like to try something like this.)
3. Grade 11 – A mandatory course in government spending, government responsibilities, fiscal planning, and the use of tax funds. Creating a committee of equal numbers of politicians, bureaucrats, economists and appointed members of the public who are appointed for 6 – 12 month terms through random selections.
4. Grade 12 – A mandatory class on voting and how to understand individual responsibilities including discussions on theories on voting vs not voting vs abstain I g to from voting. People who cannot achieve at least a C or they lose their right to vote, though remedial courses would be available.
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rawgod, those are excellent “Remedies.” I would definitely support all of them, being a former educator/teacher in Texas public schools, 4th-8th grade Social Studies, History, state/federal Government, and Science. 🙂 And your answers 1, 2, 3, and 4 accurately sum up how our LAZY citizenry (here in Texas especially) and poorly educated adults/parents in the first place have ALLOWED surrendering that much leverage, control, and “white-washing” of our state/federal curriculums and actual verifiable history, i.e. my blog-post “Texas’ 1836 Project” and others. Disturbingly and sadly our hardcore (MAGA) Republican legislature in Austin, TX, continues to white-wash our textbook fundamental histories. 😡😔 Why? How?
Because voting and potentially future voters here have allowed it to continue since 1995, so it is worse, much worse today. That’s why I left… and I was an exceptional Special Ed and AP teacher. And I’ve written many a blog-post about the alarming, appalling voter turnout rates this state has led in the nation for general, primary, and all other elections for those exact officials you speak about above, “blind voting for the blind” and the blind leading the bling and poorly educated voters here.
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Please feel free to edit and post it as a guest post, adding any comments you might have along the way. I just ask that you spell my name with a small r rawgod. You may call me “A concerned Canadian friend” if you like. And clarify I am not speaking only to Americans or Canadians, but to people of every nation on earth
Thank you.
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Egads! Don’t get me started on that subject! I won’t be able to contain myself – LOL!
I agree with you on evolution/devolution. It’s not a pretty picture these days, unfortunately.
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Today’s attention spans in the general teen and young adult generations is factually much, much shorter than say 50-75 years ago. Why? Mostly because of electronic/tech advancements (if they should be labelled that), particularly in social-media platforms, that intrude on every hour of our days/nights, 7-days a week, 365 days a year, for much/most of our current lives.
We no longer live as organically with other humans as we once did. It is now primarily a silicon-based CPU life. 😉
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Absolutely, a VIRTUAL silicon-based CPU lifeform!
Social media is a big part of this problem, as is the TV/video entertainment industry which – your fine post shows – tacitly admitted to chasing profits at the expense of contributing to the decline of attention spans. That was quite revelatory!
But, the problem is even bigger than that. Ever since the neoliberal Reagan Revolution, the once-mighty American middle class has been robbed of its wealth, robbed of its agency, and robbed of its intellectual prowess. This was no accident. It wasn’t just coincidence or happenstance. It was a deliberate and well-calculated plan to transform America back to a hierarchical society. I do have a suspicious mind, so please forgive me.
You know, we have a huge fruit fly problem up here in the Pacific Northwest. Those little buggers have short attention spans too! 🙂
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Robert, you’ve taken the words right out of my mouth and typing fingers, Sir.
Dr. Nancy MacLean of Duke & Northwestern Universities revealed exactly what you are referring to:
And she wrote an outstanding, acclaimed book on its origins called, “Democracy In Chains.” I’ve read it twice now. And along with MacLean’s fine work, Nobel Prize winners in Economics, Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman corroborate from the economic policy standpoint how the U.S. got here with tRump, MAGA, and their base supporters… of which are a small (white) minority in our demographics and political landscape! Yet, they control 85%–90% of our country’s legislation, lobbying, policy making, and funding to highly Special(ized) Interest PACs for the wealthiest individuals in this nation!
I could go on and on and on how naive the general American public—due to poor educations to start with—have continually allowed these oligarchs to gain total power of our country. But alas…
My personal time is forever valuable and cannot be replaced, so I will stop here my Friend. 😉
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When you do go on, I will listen.
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Robert, I do believe you are old enough to remember the term Boob Tube (mesmerized by electronics, not a woman’s breast) claimed to have been invented by Harlan Ellison in his Los Angeles Times social commentary byline, not that it matters.
Anyway, I would like to expand the pun to include Boob voters. But I can’t make that rhyme.
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there’s no “we”. Not all “white” people are the same ~ personally, I can’t stand the term “white”. Lots of people who have white skin do not share my ethnic background or my class history or spiritual background & I do not have ANYTHING in common with them.
My great-grandfather, grandfather & great-uncle were all adopted into Serrano tribe when they lived out in California. I have a beaded belt that was given to my grandfather ~ blue swasticas on a white field ~ very fragile now, since it’s well over 100 years old. I have always felt a close affinity to the Native American culture & history, as well as my own ethnic background.
I repeat, there is no “we”. Each one of us has our family history, our own personal journey. Whatever the American government did officially, some of us weren’t part of that & I for one will NOT take the blame.
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For me it isn’t blame at all. But it is history, and the way most European-based ethnicities are taught is they are better than people of any other colour. That right there should give everyone pause: superiority is the sign of knowing one’s inferiority.
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Sorry SAQ, I certainly wasn’t picking out individuals—other than the 19th- or early 20th-century U.S. government officials back then as well as the U.S. Army, in particular the 7th Calvary Regiment, the 1st and 3rd Colorado Calvary, and the 6th thru the 11th U.S. Infantry Regiments during the removal or slaughter of Native American peoples/tribes.
Perhaps I should’ve been more specific and detailed, but then my blog-post would’ve reached 700+ more words; lengthy or too lengthy. So I pared it down greatly. Apologies about the misunderstanding.
As rawgod took it, it was simply factual history of the powerful, greedy, resource-grabbing, violent (white) Euro-Americans in those exact positions of authority and command during that era. That was who I was referring to and they were most certainly of Euro-American descent.
Ironically, I have found in my long-time in-depth studies and research of American history that a big majority of the above demographic of 18th–19th century Euro-Americans that committed these atrocities and war-crimes… moved west from the former Confederate states as well as some of the “Border states” of the finished Civil War. These are the U.S. commanders of many ranks who were endorsed by Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, and Philip H. Sheridan, all of whom utilized horrible, brutal tactics and direct massacres of Indian tribes and villages as well as destruction of the Indian’s sustenance, e.g. the buffalo and its habitats. Col. John M. Chivington was another U.S. Union Army terrorist.
On the former Confederate side we had Douglas H. Cooper and Albert S. Johnston along with the 1st U.S. Volunteer Infantry of former Confederate soldiers who gladly served in Western territories like Montana, New Mexico, and Utah, occasionally engaging in bloody Indian conflicts.
My primary point with this very specific Indian Wars history is to show just how many individual Euro-American “descendants”—all who are factually of white ethnicity—willingly participated in the atrocities, genocide, and war-crimes upon the Mississippi River Regions/Basin and westward to the Great Plains Indians. And all the U.S. Calvary and Infantry regimental soldiers underneath the above listed men, also willingly participated in the massacres and land-grabs.
Apologies again SAQ for my broad-stroking over many, MANY more (my-NOOT) details in this blog-post like generalizing “white.” That was not intended. 🙇♂️🙏
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Please, though I know it is historic and common usage, please do not use that “I” word when talking about Indigenous Peoples in Canada and the US. Indians come from India, though I bet they dislike that word as much or more than I do. They call themselves the Bharat from the country of Bharatvarsha (or Hindustan).
I have no idea why the English-speakers of the world need to change the name from what a people call themselves to something totally unrelated. This habit is extremely insulting!
Colombo knew my ancestors were not “Indians.” For this he should have been beheaded.
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I don’t know about that. Here in NY, there’s plenty of Iroquois ~ especially the Senecas ~ who wear hoodies with the word “INDIAN” emblazoned upon it. I think it’s becoming one of those words ~ like witch for us non-Christian feminists ~ that’s being reclaimed & turned into a positive.
I had a landlord ~ he was Seneca & Cayuga ~ who had several of these hoodies. & I see them often on the rez. Pride comes in many forms.
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It does. But I bet most of those you see are of younger generations than us. They are used to being called by such an offensive and racist term — they and their parents in grew in Canada and the USA where they are becoming immune to the slur in the word. This is the way we have been brainwashed. seen any census result comparisons for a long time so I can’t say what direction they are going now.
All this is to say no matter what present Indidgenous people are allowing themselves to be called, it defines them (us) as Not-White, which to many whites means we are still unintelligent savages. I beg to refuse the nomenclature.
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I was never taught that my European ancestry made me better than anyone else. Far from it.
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One more or two more things SAQ…
On the subject of being taught my European ancestry, this is what I was taught growing up by my father and mother and their families, two blog-posts about it/them both, if you’re so inclined Ma’am:
My Heretical Heritage (maternal side)
Legacy (paternal side)
This genealogy of myself, my parents, and my ancestors eventually led to and molded me into a Bohemian Free-Thinking Humanist… of which I am humbly proud to be today. 😊
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I must agree with the Professor, SAQ. I was born and raised in the relatively progressive San Francisco Bay Area during the 1950s and 60s. Bigotry and racism weren’t explicitly taught. Rather, it was a subtle and mostly unspoken cultural norm. Yet, that form of “learning” was probably much more impactful because a child’s mind cannot process it as quickly as a more direct approach. It wasn’t until my teenage years that I became aware of it. Fortunately, that’s when I became a supporter of civil rights. Unfortunately, that’s when I began having major conflicts with my parents.
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My father was going to college when I was a kid. He often took us kids to UB (State University of NY at Buffalo) on Saturdays when he had a program to run & I remember playing with computer cards ~ you know, those cards with the punches in them ~ sitting on the floor of a large room with those wall-sized computers lining the walls. He got his masters in electrical engineering in 1968. He often invited his friends & their families to the house for cookouts & dinners with the families & they were people of all colors, races & ethnic backgrounds.
The problem I had with my parents in my teens had nothing to do with politics. It had to do with sex & drugs.
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Completely agree rawgod. Thank you Sir.
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I was never taught that. However, I do know people who do think that; they must have been taught that, either intentionally or by hearing their elders talk in that fashion.
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Just for further clarification SAQ, 🙏🥰
Speaking in general terms again… my parents, especially my Dad, taught me of numerous methods of “accountability” for our actions… or NON-actions. Ironically, and often overlooked today, is what we do or not do, say or not say, about the many immoral, unethical, brutal, inhumane treatments that humans did in the past to other humans. Though we today cannot change or rewrite the past horrors of human silence, non-action, cruelties and slaughters, we CAN stop it from repeating or prospering in our generation.
That is accountability we must own and nurture, teach in ourselves today, not keep silent and inactive, but use all good means possible, like not repeating past atrocities now or allowing them to continue.
Hope that makes better sense SAQ. 🙂 Again, sorry for my haste (shortness) in this post and the vague parts.
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I regulated the H channel to the trash can a long time ago. Along with The D channel. So much ignorant bullshit. It would take a team of horses to move my fingers on the remote, to tune in to either of those insipid, idiotic, peddlers of enough maybe’s, perhaps-es, and might have beens, to set my flipping brain on fire. If I could get past that, it might interest me, but I don’t think it’s happening!
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😄 Well then Shell, can you maybe participate in the discussion here about the Crazy Horse Memorial in Crazy Horse, SD? For starters, will it be completed in our lifetimes? Why or why not?
Do you like the fact, as I very much do, that the Crazy Horse Memorial is so near (25-mins) to Mount Rushmore and its Manifest Destiny American (bloody) symbolism? 😉
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If anyone deserves a monument, it is the native peoples of this land. However, were I them, I think I’d find it a bit insulting, and too little too late.
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True. Way late!
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