"Native Americans" Not Living Harmoniously With Land

National Review had an interesting discussion in "The Corner" today that brought up several points I've been making for years:

1. Native Americans aren't "native" at all. The ethnic group that calls itself Native American are, in fact, immigrants just like everyone else. Unlike Europeans who came over by boat, these folks originated near what we now know as Mongolia and essentially walked over the land bridge between Russia and Alaska - eventually settling across North America.

I have no problem with them not wanting to be called "Indians" because they are not originally from the Indian sub-continent, but I refuse to call them "Native Americans" just because they happened to get here first. If we must assign a name, then they are more properly "Mongolian Americans," but they are most definitely not "Native." They're immigrants just like everybody else with no inherent claim to the continent.

2. They weren't the great caretakers of the land that the politically correct crowd would lead you to believe. They used the land differently than Europeans, but they wreaked devastation on the landscape they found, hunted animals to extinction, and generally did as much ecological damage as they deemed fit without regard to renewable resources or any of the other environmental awareness for which they are credited.

3. European immigrants were not always fair to the people they met here, but it was a two-way street. History is replete with unprovoked massacres of European settlements and double-dealing by this group.

4. They were not universally peaceful or living in harmony with each other before the white man's arrival. Friendly relations between competing tribes was the exception rather than the rule with tribal warfare not being at all uncommon.

I say these things not to trash-talk those who call themselves Native Americans. I say them because: a) it's the truth whether you like or not, and b) because the European settlers have been unfairly vilified for doing no worse than they did to and for themselves.

It's time to get off the "blame the white man" train that so many people have hopped on in recent years. An objective reading of history ultimately reveals that no group of people has an exclusive right to either the "morally superior" or the "victim" cards.

I'm sick and tired of those who claim that white men are evil because of this or that historical "fact" that upon closer examination turns out not to be nearly as factual as they would like you to believe.

Enough's enough...You treat me with respect, and I'll treat you with respect. I don't care where your ancestors came from; but don't try to say I'm evil because you don't know your history well enough...