Leon 1The Wild West’s Legacy of Shame
By John Halford
1.THE LEGENDS of the Wild West still color many people’s impreion of the United States of America.Unfortunately, the romanticized Hollywood cowboys and Indians have given a distorted picture of what really happened.
2.Certainly, America’s western expansion was in many ways an epic of courage and en-durance.Dogged pioneers opened up new territory and forged a nation from the wilderne.This is the stuff of legends.But there was a dark side to this story.For the Indians it was a sad, bitter tale of misunderstanding, greed and betrayal — and we should know that too.
3.Before 1990 fades from memory, let’s pause to remember December 29 as the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Wounded Knee.This “battle” (it was more of a maacre) marked the completion of the conquest of the North American Indians by the United States government.Not Enough Indians
4.In the early days of settlement along the Atlantic shore the colonists and the Indians got along together.Their ways of life were different, but there was room for both.
5.The Indians were not unorganized hostile savages.The various tribes were often confederations or nations, and at first, the new settlers treated them as independent powers.But as European settlement gathered momentum, mistrust began to build.
6.It was not long before the newcomers outnumbered the native peoples (It has been estimated there were only about a million Amerindians in the continent north of what is now Mexico).
7.In the struggle between the French and the British for control of North America (1689— 1763), and in the later Revolutionary War (1775—1783) between the British and the Colonists, the Europeans tried to win the support of the Indians.
8.They became pawns in the white man’s struggle to control North America.Those who found themselves on the losing side suffered reprisals by the victors.
9.By the end of the 18th century, the independence of the United States was established, and George Washington admonished Congre: We are more enlightened and more powerful than the Indian nations.It behooves our honor to treat them with kindne and even gen-erosity.
10.But that’s not what happened.Might became right①, and from the beginning of nationhood of the United States, the native people were exploited, forced from their homelands by the relentle European expansion — usually after signing agreements and treaties they did not really understand.
11.The white man’s concept of land ownership was alien to the Indians.They thought they had agreed to share, only to find that they had signed away the rights to live in their traditional territory.
12.Eventually, the government decided it would be in everyone’s best interest for the two peoples to live apart.The Indian Removal Act of 1830 gave the president power to relocate all the Eastern Indian tribes west of the Miiippi on land the new Americans thought they would not need.
13.None were to be exempted even those tribes who had made an effort to learn the white man’s ways were forced to move.The Cherokees, for example, were settled farmers, had developed an alphabet, and even published a newspaper in their own language.
14.But the Cherokees, along with the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles②, were rounded up and herded off to “Indian Territory.” One in four Cherokees died during the forced winter migration along what became known as the “Trail of Tears.”
Broken Promises
15.Under the agreement, land to the west of the Miiippi was to be the Indians’ homeland for “as long as the graes grow, and the waters flow.” Or rather, until the restle young nation wanted the land for itself.
16.Even before the treaties were ratified, the “permanent Indian frontier” was moved farther west.Over the course of decades, agreements were renegotiated, broken, amended, reratified and broken again.
17.The dispoeed eastern tribes, pushed farther and farther west into the Great Plains region, became refugees in the territory of the still free and culturally different Indian nations of the Plains.
18.The Plains tribes were the quinteential storybook Indians — proud, fierce, magnificent horsemen, skillful hunters and fearle warriors.For centuries they roamed the magnificent wilderne that was to become Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and the Dakotas.
19.Romanticized history has portrayed them as noble savages who blocked the path of the bold pioneers.
20.Not really.The Plains Indians also tried to accommodate the relentle encroachment on their hunting grounds.As the white man pushed ever westward, fencing the land and deci-mating the buffalo herds, the Indian nations struggled to hold on to their way of life.
21.They signed treaties; they tried to move out of the way.When cornered they fought back, bitterly and desperately, until, exhausted and discouraged, they would accept the terms of yet another fragile treaty, soon broken.
22.The Indian wars were an ugly episode in the history of the United States.Both sides fought grimly, usually mercilely.They plundered, tortured and slaughtered; often the vic-tims were unarmed women and children.
23.The conquest of the West, usually portrayed as a valiant struggle, was in reality a cruel, particularly vicious war.Indian braves were not always the noble warriors of legend, and the U.S.cavalry often acted out of ruthlene rather than courage and chivalry.
24.Unfortunately Hollywood Westerns have made heroes out of some rather bloodthirsty characters.The real heroes were those voices of reason on both sides who tried to stop the bloodshed.
25.The way of life of the two peoples, however, had become so different, and the feelings of mistrust and hatred too strong.
26.The struggle ended near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, where the last desperate remnant of Sitting Bull’s Sioux③ had been rounded up after leaving the Pine Ridge Reservation.
27.On the bitterly cold morning of December 29, 1890, as the Indians were being dis-armed, a young brave (who may have been deaf) refused to hand over his rifle.In the ensuing struggle, the weapon discharged.
28.The soldiers opened fire, and when it was over at least half the Indians lay dead or seriously wounded in the snow.Skirmishes continued even into the early years of this century, but Wounded Knee represented the end of Indian resistance.
The Trail of Tears
29.The once proud Indian nations became an embittered minority, confined to reservations, second-cla citizens in their old homelands.Some, like the Navaho and the Sioux, endured to preserve a strong identity.
30.Other tribes withered and died, remembered only by a name on the map, or the faded artifacts in a dusty corner of a pioneer museum.The Indian Citizenship Act of 1924 guaran-teed full citizenship to all Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States, and today, all American Indians have full civil rights.
31.Yet most still choose to live apart, preserving what they can of their way of life.Significant numbers have shared in the American dream.But for many others, reservation life has meant despair, frustration and alcohol abuse.
32.The bountiful and practically empty New World had ample room for both peoples to work out their differences peacefully.But history shows that native people are seldom treated fairly by a stronger civilization.
33.Arguably, the North American Indians may have fared better than some other indigenous peoples on other continents.They were never the victims of a deliberate policy of slavery, or genocide, as has happened elsewhere.But that is not the point.
34.The United States was founded on the lofty principles of freedom and justice for all.But lofty principles ought to be lived up to.
35.The Bible tells us that righteousne exalts a nation, not broken treaties, greed and exploitation.Might is not necearily right for a God-fearing nation (as the United States of America claimed — and claims—to be).
36.The Bible teaches that a treaty is a treaty, not to be taken lightly, and certainly not to be unilaterally abandoned when its terms become inconvenient.
37.The story that ended at Wounded Knee 100 years ago is a stain on America’s record.We tell that story, not to open old wounds, not to fan new flames of resentment.But to remind us how easy it is for a people flushed with succe to become desensitized to the disadvantaged.
38.It is unfortunate that the conquest of the Wild West is universally regarded as a glorious saga of courage and opportunity.It was rather, just another sad, violent chapter in the long history of man’s inability to share with, cooperate with and love his neighbor as himself.
From The Plain Truth,④
January 199
1① Might became right强权即为公理
② But the Cherokees, along with the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Seminoles--- Cherokee：北美印第安彻罗基部落；Creek：以马斯科吉部落为主的美国印第安人一个大部落---克里克人；Choctaws： 印第安人的巧克陶族；Chickasaw：美国马斯科吉印第安人一个部落---契克索人；Seminole：印第安人塞米诺尔族。
③ Sitting Bull’s Sioux：坐牛（北美印第安人苏族首领）
④ The Plain Truth：《朴实真言》（美国加利福尼亚州帕萨迪拉市出版的一种教会性刊物。该刊是以六种语言出版、在全球发行的双月刊。）
Analysis of the Content
1.According to the article, the Wounded Knee Battle _________.
A.marked the beginning of the Indian WarsB.Marked the end of the Indian Wars
C.symbolized Indians’ braveryD.demonstrated the colonists’ power
2.The article was written to observe _______.
A.the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Wounded Knee
B.American’s conquest of the Wild West
C.America’s National DayD.the succe of America’s western expansion
3.The author’s purpose in writing the article is to ______.
A.arouse Indians’ indignation against the American Government
B.demand compensation for Indian’s past sufferings
C.remind people how easy it is for a people flushed with succe to become desensitized to the disadvantaged
D.expose the aggreive nature of the colonists
4.The overall tone of the article is ______.
A.critical of the IndiansB.sympathetic to the Indians
C.eulogistic of the Wild West’s conquestD.satirical of the US Government
5.To the mind of the author, the real heroes during the period of the Indian Wars were ______.
A.the Plains IndiansB.the Indian brave
C.the U.S.cavalryD.those who tried to stop the fighting
Questions on the Article
1.How do Hollywood westerns color American people’s impreion about the western expansion?
2.What did the Western Movement mean to the Indians?
3.How did the Indians feel towards the colonists in the early days of their settlement?
4.How did the Indians suffer in white people’s internecine struggles to gain control of North America?
5.Were the Indians treated kindly as advised by George Washington?
6.What power did the Indian Removal Act of 1830 give the president?
7.Did the white colonists observe the act strictly?
8.What conceions did the Plains Indians make at first?
9.To the mind of the author, who were the real heroes in the struggle between Indian braves and white
colonists?
Topics for Discuion
1.Was the Westward March an epic of courage and endurance?
2.Did white colonists treat Indians in the same way as they treated blacks?
