There Was No Noble Savage
I sometimes hear a stubborn myth,
that before Europeans came
the locals of America
all lived lives quite peaceful, and tame.
The old trope of the Noble Savage,
that somehow manages to persist,
polls show a disturbing number
of people believe in all this.
And with it come these shibboleths,
that still leave a mark to this day,
that they were ‘closer to the earth,’
so we must value what they say.
That somehow, if we’d just listened,
we too could have had paradise,
that because they suffered in the past
what they say must always be right.
But if past suffering made men
uniquely wise or very smart,
then all of us would be geniuses,
instead of just covered in scars.
Plus even a simple survey
of American history,
reveals a few bloody problems
that ‘narratives’ don’t want to see.
Let’s look first at the great Black Hills
the Sioux claim are sacred to them…
which they took from the Cheyenne by force,
who took it from Kiowa men.
Was all of this done peacefully
with nary a drop of bloodshed?
No, it was done by warriors,
each wave leaving countless folk dead.
Of course, why were the Sioux out there,
displacing the people before?
Because Chippewa and Cree people
drove them from the woods via war.
Just ask the famous Apache
how the Comanche caused them pain,
or ask that of any people
who lived near those great southern plains.
They’ll all tell you the same story,
they didn’t really get along,
and countless decades of war showed
the Comanche were brutal and strong.
Or ask Algonquins and Hurons
what they thought of the Iroquois,
that much vaunted confederacy
brought conquest neither could avoid.
Even when the Spanish showed up
this pattern didn’t quickly changed,
it was natives who helped Cortes
bring down the bloody Aztec reign.
And I can’t really blame those guys
since the Aztecs regularly
started wars to find sacrifices,
then cut their hearts out in the streets!
Does this excuse our own mistakes?
Of course not, but it must be seen
that we’re not exactly unique
when it comes to ways to be mean.
There is no need to lionize
First Nations as special case,
they did the same horrors we did
when put in a powerful place.
Don’t place utopian notions
on what, in the end, were just men,
Indians slaughtered each other,
they slaughtered us, we slaughtered them.
It’s the damn human condition...
Copyright ©
David Welch
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