Santorum: There isn't much Native American culture in American culture

Great, now cancel culture is going to come for Rick Santorum for the mere "crime" of canceling all of Native American culture?

When will it end?

 

Can the republican who checked out the one brain the entire party must share, please return it?

The complete and utter crap coming out of the modern GOP proves its been missing for a while.

 

Were the Native Americans the direct descendants of the paleolithic first humans who stepped foot in the Americas 30,000 years ago?
Likely no.
They also came, killed slaughtered, commited genocides and exterminated different human tribes and cultures and brought animal species to complete extinction.
And their ancestors from asia were also genociders who did the same.

They likely as is human nature, also thought they were doing their god's will killing the "savages" and they were the god's only chosen.

So there is nothing unique about modern america. Nothing unique in having delusional exceptionalism and nothing unique about religious monolithism.

The only unique in all of this is our modern sensibillities that makes wanton slaughtering and genocides unacceptable even though it was the way of life of all our ancestors.

 

Somebody should send Rick a copy of the excellent book 1491. At least one of his staffers could learn something.

 

We didn’t get freedom from those injuns, that’s for sure.

 

Genetic evidence is showing that Native Americans are descended from paleolithic humans that came to North America from Asia between 15,000 - 30,000 years ago. The migration though wasn't one single group and there have been studies showing there are several different groups.

Native American groups certainly waged warfare against each other including wiping out different groups but for the most part appear to be people who crossed the Bering strait land bridge during the last Ice Age.
https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/coming-to-paleo-america

 

https://thoughtcatalog.com/james-b-...ere-named-by-native-americans-was-your-state/

There are a probably some people in Mn who wouldn't mind calling the state "Vikingland" or 'New Scandanavia"

 

The very first humans came 30,000 years ago and like you said it was in several groups.
Unless they were the direct descendants of the very very first then they were also "conquerors" even when that happen was in the stone age.
So they didn't only waged warfare against each other but against other previous settlers.

The proof of that is their very existence. They exist therefore they were the winners of multiple genocides.

 

During the pandemic I've been listening to podcasts and documentaries including ones about the Aztec and Inca Empires. In some ways they were as advanced and even more advanced than the Roman Empire and both represented centuries of American culture from older cultures like the Mayans and Olmec.

One American Empire that also likely had a very sophisticated culture was the Mound Builders of the Ohio Valley. When Columbus landed they still existed but were wiped out by diseases that the Europeans brought but before Europeans themselves made it to what had been their territory. They also didn't build massive stone structures like the empires of the Meso and South America so other than the mounds little is known about them.

 

Is that proof of genocide? Maybe they integrated. Also when we talk Americans they aren't one group. There are clear differences in South, Central, and North Americans

 

good source on the contributions of Native Americans as a whole and some specific tribes - surprisingly from - our gov't

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs141p2_024206.pdf

 

Yes, their existence is proof of genocides.
Otherwise they would have been eliminated. Same for South, Centra, North Americans and all Earthling humans.

The difference between the genocides commited by their ancestors and their own genocide is that theirs were lost in history. Their victims left nothing or almost nothing behind.

 

Certainly humans since even before our species was what it was now were waging wars but I'm not sure the term "genocide" as in deliberately wiping out previous peoples fitting. There is plenty of evidence that even Neanderthals didn't get wiped out by Cro-Magnon but were absorbed in as many modern humans have Neanderthal DNA.

No one knows for sure what group first got to the Americas but archeological and genetics indicate that modern Native Americans are descended for the most part from the earliest humans to arrive. There were certainly groups that were defeated by other groups but there doesn't appear to be a lot of evidence that the ancestors of modern Native Americans conquered an older group of inhabitants in the Americans like the Europeans did.

 

Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will Rick Santorum realize he cannot eat money.

Here is the writing of Hernán Cortés describing the Aztec city of Tenochtitlán. https://www.historians.org/teaching...m-hernan-cortes/cortes-describes-tenochtitlan

 

Anthropological Nerd Out:

The same thing has been said about Aboriginal Australians that they had no culture until Europeans showed up. Genetic studies have shown that aboriginal Australians are actually one of the oldest living groups of humans and might've left Africa some 72,000 years ago.
https://www.history.com/news/dna-study-finds-aboriginal-australians-worlds-oldest-civilization

 

In which ways?

 

@Nook

 

Yup I said it above.
The difference is that there is no evidence left of the genocides commited by their ancestors.

Who knows how many human ethnic groups, cultures religions and languages have been gone silently extinct since the dawn of civilisation?
Gone with almost no proof behind. Slaughtered , intergrated by rape or slavery and didn't even have a chance to leave a trace the anals of history.

 

There is a lot of evidence the Aztecs were slave owning conquerors. It is one of the reasons they were able to be conquered themselves. They had a lot of enemies. The famous story of La Malinche relates to this.

 

I think using a term life genocide is unfair. Natural resources including food were scarce. It may have just been survival of the fittest