Just had too!

[trouttime]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

http://www.michigan-sportsman.com/photopost/data/539/Wall1.jpg

[1oldforester]

And now they would be a hell of a lot better off is that had really taken place.

[DaveW731]

And now they would be a hell of a lot better off is that had really taken place.

:yeahthat:

Scary, but true....

[trouttime]

I agree with you both! That little joke is certainly food for thought, history does repeat itself!

[BuckJohnson]

"And now they would be a hell of a lot better off is that had really taken place." ?

I don't understand how they could be "better off" Many Indians get basically free health care and/or clinics funded by the Feds. I don't, do you? Tribes with tribal courts can have criminal charges transferred to tribal courts where the penalties can be MUCH more lenient or non-existent than the rest of us would face. For example, if you get 2 drunk driving convictions in 7 years your drivers license gets revoked by the Sec. of State. If you get the drunk driving case transferred to a tribal court, the conviction generally is not abstracted to the Sec. of State and no matter how many times you get caught driving, your license doesn't get revoked.

Some tribes write their own hunting and fishing seasons with their own bag limits and licenses. My close friend has her membership and only has to ask for a license. Sure wish I could get an elk license that easy. I've been trying to have my name drawn for an elk license since the 80's with no success so far.
Some tribe members get casino subsidies. There use to be a college tuition grant/incentive for native americans but the passing of Prop 2 may have ended that.
Having tribal membership in the UNITED States has its benefits.

[DaveW731]

In 1620, the Indians had control of the entire North American continent. By 1820, they had been virtually eliminated from the Eastern seaboard. Fifty years after that, "The Indian Wars", started, with the result of them living on reservations, or resorting to guerilla-type warfare in an effort to retain their independance! Thirty years after that, they were seen as a historic curiousity and had no meaningful role in American society.
Don't get me wrong: I am not saying that I support the current situation either....my only point is that from the historical perspective The Indians in North America DID, in fact, lose their land, their culture and their way of life, as a result of the encroachment of another culture. That, I believe, is the point of the cartoon.
Would Indians in 2006 be "better off" if they had been able to keep the Europeans out?...... I have to admit that I don't know. Would the Indians have been better off in 1706,1806 and 1906, if they had kept the Europeans out? Absolutely.

[BuckJohnson]

Well said DaveW. I was afraid people would read my words as some type of Anti-Indian, racist posting. It wasn't. The world has changed. The way of life many of our ancestors lived decades or centuries ago simply will not be feasible today. The plentiful species of truly wild fish and game of yesterday would be great but I also appreciate supermarkets, central air and my boat motor.

[fasthunter]

I definitely got the point of the cartoon. It also brought a good point out. In reality it isn't any different. Things happen for a reason and we wouldn't have been this great country if things wouldn't have happened the way they did, but I can actually say that the Europeans coming over was the worst thing that could have happened to the native americans. In a way I actually respect the way they lived. At least they knew how to respect what they had. Instead nowadays we are way out of tune with nature, most people have no understanding of it, and we destroy it for simple B.S stuff. Like for example housing development, malls, ect. Not only that but they were massacred on mass scales, forced into our culture, treated inferior almost as a sub-species, and were forced to live on small parcels of land. Just imagine if Germany would have won in WWII and that happened to us. It's exactly the same thing. It's just another perspective that's all.

[MuskyDan]

social darwinism