Hair Raising Reading in Wild West Magazine

Real history is more complex than TV shows or movies. There is much discussion about the portrayal of Native Americans in cinema. On the one hand there is the image of the hyper violent
savage familiar from many Westerns and on the other hand is the Mazola ecogreen retro Marxist fantasy of Native Americans living in harmony with nature.

Native American cultures were diverse with practices that were in some ways good and in other ways not so good. Plenty of societies practiced slavery and aggressive warfare. Raids are excused by anthropologists as stealing food possessions from your enemy in order to ensure group survival.
Sorry, but cutting through the blather depriving another group of possessions, food, territory is a societal crime. Oddly the Marxist critics of these crimes fail to note that the notion that this is not a way for civilized people to behave is a Western Construct.

In the August 2010 issue of Wild West Magazine the subject of the most famous captive ever taken by Indians Cynthia Parker is discussed. For those who are familiar with the history Cynthia Parker was a nine year old white settler who was abducted in a brutal raid by Comanches. Over time her relatives were raped and slaughtered, but she was adopted into the tribe and came to see them as her people. She married a brutal warrior and gave birth to the most famous Comanche in history Quannah Parker.

First off the Comanches of the past would be perplexed with the odd racialism of Dr. Yeagley. The earliest members obviously were more interested with who can lead or will make a dutiful
wife who will have many children than kook racial purity. The fact that Cynthia Parker and her half racial son were accepted is largely a historic rejection of the Yeagley kook theory of racial purity. The Comanche were in many ways a merit based society.

Moving onto the raids of Nocona, these raids were brutal and horrific. It is true that many crimes were committed against Indians were inexcusable. However among the highlights are gangrapes, torture, mutilation and abduction of children who were sometimes adopted and other times killed.

Now we have heard plenty about the evils of Christians and wanting to blame them for some very real abuses. However, not all of the cultural practices were peachy and there were many
missionaries who devoted their lives to serving their communities. Yes the cases Ray speaks of
as abuse of clerics vs Indians are also very real.

We need to have a more balanced view of Indians. The tribes had vibrant cultures, but like our own they were far from perfect. No Indian ever tiptoed through the tulips. If an Indian walked quietly through the woods he was likely looking for game which he killed.

Indians like other groups sometimes had poor leaders who made bad choices.

When admiring the culture it is important not to turn a living culture into a myth for political purposes. We need to get to an era where we can say Indians are the Oldest members of our American family and honored and we really wronged them. There were really nasty crimes committed on both sides. However, we need to honor our treaties, respect (not Disney, nor Freddy Kruger) the cultures and history and live up the best of our ideals as American citizens