"Practicalities" of Reparations

[Carl Remick]

>On what you call the "political" question - I think the moral claim
>for reparations is irrefutable. (So would any Indian claim for
>reparations.)...
>
>Doug

[Re "any Indian claim for reparations," I thought I'd share a passage from 
_Empire Express_ by David Haward Bain, concerning the building of the U.S. 
transcontinental railroad.  The following was written by Silas Seymour, a 
high-level consulting engineer to the Union Pacific Railroad, at the time of 
the "100th Meridian" gala in Oct. 1866 , when the most notable U.S. 
government and business figures of the day, along with their families, 
partook of a celebratory "excursion" to Cozad, Nebraska, to mark a critical 
milestone in the westward progress of the Union Pacific's track laying.  The 
festivities included a Wild West show staged by peaceful Pawnee Indians 
dressed up as warriors – the scene that Seymour remarks upon below.]

Perhaps no better illustration could have been given of the extremes of 
civilized and savage life, standing face to face with each other, than the 
one now before us.  On the one side was the track of the Union Pacific 
Railroad, upon which stood that great civilizer, the locomotive and train 
... and in the foreground stood the group of excursionists, composed of 
beauty, intelligence and refinement; while, on the other hand, were grouped 
these uncouth savages, many of them almost in their normal state, except for 
the profuse display of feathers and trinkets which bedecked their persons; 
low and brutal in their habits, and mentally elevated but slightly, if at 
all, above the level of the beasts that inhabit this vast and beautiful 
country with them.

But the laws of civilization are such that it must press forward; and it is 
in vain that these poor ignorant creatures attempt to stay its progress by 
resisting inch by inch, and foot by foot, its onward march over these lovely 
plains, where but a few years since, they were "monarchs of all they 
surveyed."

The locomotive must go onward until it reaches the Rocky Mountains, the 
Laramie Plains, the Great Salt Lake, the Sierra Nevada, and the Pacific 
Ocean.  Lateral roads must also be built, extending in all directors from 
the main line, as veins from an artery, and penetrating the hunting grounds 
of these worse than useless Indian tribes, until they are either driven from 
the face of the earth; or forced to look for safety in the adoption of that 
very civilization and humanity, which they now so savagely ignore and 
despise.

[end]

Carl



_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com