Cockburn to Indians: get over it!

[James Farmelant]

One interesting aspect of the excerpt that Lou quotes from
Ward Churchill is the differing attitudes that Indians and whites
towards notions of "race."  He makes it clear that for most Indian
tribes genetic heritage was of less interest than one's willingness
to follow the tribe's way of life.  Thus many tribes were quite willing
to accept people of European and/or African ancestry into their
tribes.  This contrasts with Euroamerican concerns with racial
purity.  Also, Ward Churchill notes the attraction that the Indians'
ways of life had for many white settlers during colonial times and
later on.  It was no doubt in reaction to this attraction that the
Euroamerican ideology that conceptualized the Indians as
"savages" , as "children of the Devil," and as biological inferiors
was developed in the first place.  The Indians had to be viewed
as the Other both in order to combat the attractiveness of their
way of life and to justify their destruction so that whites
could gain control of their lands.

		Jim Farmelant

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