July 16, 2018
Source: Bigstock
Those Poor, Helpless Indian Savages
The modern narrative of the noble savage does not mesh well with the idea of multiculturalism. The Comanches remind me of certain ethnic minorities that are committing the majority of violent crimes here in the U.S. for some reason. We are not the same. We are not equal. They are not like us.
John MacDonald
Comancheria, Texas
Goad’s piece is true history! Great antidote to those ignorant foks today who tend to romanticize the Indians, and go on and on about how awful White colonizers ruined their idyllic way of life and stole their land.
Yes, we stole their land; but driving other tribes out and taking over their territory was what Indians had been doing to each other, since time immemorial. The Iroquois league became the dominant group in what later became upstate New York by conquering— and in some cases exterminating— the indigenous tribes who were there before them. The Comanches had been driven out of Wyoming, and in their turn drove the Apaches, Tonkawas and other tribes out of Texas.
It’s hard for a civilized modern reader who hasn’t been exposed to historical accounts to even imagine the savage delighting-in-cruelty-to-captives which characterized many tribes. It’s no wonder that White settlers who saw the grisly remains of such “inhuman” practices thought the Indians to be demonic savages, and were determined to kill every last one of them.
And yeah: women and kids were included in the ‘festivities’. Comanches brought captives home to their women, who took great enjoyment in torturing them to death in the slowest, cruelest ways possible. Imagine being a kid, growing up watching your mom do stuff like that…
The Indians’ treatment of their captives varied. The adult males they mainly killed. Women and kids who whimpered and cried were killed. But those women and kids who showed ‘spunk’ by fighting back, and by stoicly enduring the harsh treatment meted out to them, were often adopted into the tribe and treated well.
What’s interesting is how many of these adopted White captives, when they were eventually liberated from their Indian captors, refused to go back; oddly enough, considering how hard their life was, there was something about that wild and free Indian life that was more appealing than civilized life back home.
That was certainly the case for Cynthia Ann Parker, a young Scotch-Irish girl whose story is told in Empire of the Summer Moon. Captured on the Texas frontier in 1836 at age 9 by a raiding band of Comanches, after seeing her father’s skull split open with a tomahawk and several other settlers slaughtered, she was carried away on horseback… bound and brutally beaten on her first night of captivity… forced to watch as a group of braves gang-raped her aunt…. But on reaching the Comanche camp, she was adopted by a widowed squaw who protected her from further abuse and treated her well.
She ended up marrying a Comanche war chief, and having several kids by him; one of whom was Quanah Parker, who grew up to lead the Quahadi, the last Comanche band to surrender to Whites.
When Cynthia was 24, White soldiers attacked their camp, killing her husband in the process; and realizing who she was, brought her back to civilization.
She hated it! Tried over and over again to escape… finally resigned herself to life among ‘her kind’, but never stopped hating it, and never ceased yearning to return to the Comanche life she had grown to love.
So yeah: the Indians were fighting and killing and scalping and torturing and enslaving each other, long before Whites arrived on the scene. They were savages, to an extent that’s well-nigh incomprehensible to most modern folks with no knowledge of history. Thanks, Jim!
Bill Stell
McLean, Virginia
The “noble red man” was invented only when distance permitted such fantasy. Now we have not only distance but time, making him nobler still. Those on the frontier had no such illusions. This is from the pension application of my 5th great-grandfather talking about the death of his brother and mother and rescue of his sisters in 1775.
Question 5. State the names of some of the Regular officers, who were with the troops where you served, such continental and militia Regiments as you can recollect, and the general circumstances of your service
Answer. The Shawnee Indians had come into Botetout County in the said State of Virginia and killed my brother David Day and taken my mother and Two Sisters, Sally Day and Martha Day prisoners, and also took some other property and made for their Towns, the first night the Indians camped on a mountain, between Cape Capen River and Ceder Creek [sic: Cacapon River in present Hardy County WV and Cedar Creek in Shenandoah County VA], and at that Camp killed my mother Susan Day, (formerly Susan Wyley [Susan Wiley] Daughter of James Wyley [James Wiley] as I understood) And Capt. Fry Raised Twenty men, of which I was one, We followed said Indians, and when we came to the Indian Camp aforesaid, there lay my mother dead, and striped naked her head skined; and we lifted her and laid her between Two Rocks and laid some rocks over her; And We followed on after the Indians, and the second day came in sight of them at their Camp, and I raised my gun to shoot one of them, and just as I was about to draw Trigger, I saw one of my sisters rise up right before the muzzle of my gun between me and the Indian; And I was so alarmed at seeing my sister Rise before my gun that I involentaryly hallowed, which so alarmed the Indians that they broke and run, leaving the prisoners, and what they had at the Camp, and run with all their might; and we got the prisoners, and what property the Indians left at the camp, and brought all safe to the fort….
Many are familiar with the story of Chief Joseph and his people, the Nez Pierce, fleeing US forces and trying to find refuge in Canada. They might have made it too but the Crow Indians stole most of the Nez Pierce horses less than ten miles from where I sit now. That native on native mayhem took place just over 200 years after John Day’s story.
Sherman Watkins
Smoking in Montana’s Banana Belt
Jim Goad’s brilliant takedown of the long-running innocent Indian grievance narrative was like watching the Hindenburg crash and burn while standing (cold beer in hand) in Whiteclay, Nebraska.
William Peters
Rochester, New York
It’s not any different than when I ask Mexicans why anyone should pay any attention to their Aztlan tomfoolery. To hear them wail and bemoan their so-called “ancestry” you’d have thought that a great injustice had been wrought. But you’d be wrong. I always ask them when are they going to give the land back to the Indians they killed and stole it from? Or, for that matter, when will the Indians give the land back to whatever tribe they wiped out ages ago? It’s not like they were there forever. How far back do you go to right all the wrongs? This gets me the usual blank stares and muttering from all the cognitive dissonance at work.
David Fix
Midland, Texas
To Jim’s litany I would add the horrors suffered by Indian women captured by other tribes, or white women captured by the Indians. There are many reports of such treatment by tribes of their female captives, though I can’t say all tribes behaved the same. There is Congressional testimony, I believe, by one woman who was taken on an Indian raiding party—Comanche? Ute? Is it possible the noble Cheyenne? I can’t recall—and raped hundreds of times by the time the band made it back to its village, where the violations continued. She was enslaved, but eventually traded, or escaped back, to the White world, where she insisted on telling her story. Now that’s a WOMAN!
The history of our treatment of the Indians is a stain on the country, equal to slavery in my opinion. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Indians were savages. Righteous wrath did not compel them to barbarism against their enemies. And we should not confuse the overwhelming power of the U.S., against which they stood no chance of victory, with the plight of the isolated pioneer who lived in fear of their depredations.
Peter Kelegian
Gainesville, Florida
Is a Trump Court in the Making?
Regarding Pat Buchanan’s attack on liberal Supreme Court judges, the document I respect is the Declaration oI Independence, which lets me know in no uncertain terms that I have a right to pursue happiness. The Constitution, whch is what remained of the Declaration after the lawyers got hold of it, attempts to give happiness to certain people, corporation heads and minorities for example, at the expense of others.
Roland Maruska
New York, NY
Patrick J. Buchanan’s July 10, 2018 “Is a Trump Court in the Making?” is too polite on the true possibilities of a Trump Court, for a very long time.
You do not have to drink of the dregs of 4Chan /pol/ to find some relevant statistics of Trump’s tremendous opportunity to reshape both the Supreme Court of the United States, but also to reshape the Federal Courts, and most importantly the 9th Circuit.
First up, Trump inherited a vacant SCOTUS position at inauguration, and Congress in a cheery mood gave Trump’s nominee Neil Gorsuch the polite nod. Kennedy wants to retire to his comfortable academic gigs like Salzburg, so Trump now can put forward Brett Kavanaugh. We can expect a bit of a slog on this. But it is summertime and Trump’s judicial team already has learned the buttons to push in Congress with the Gorsuch run, and even knows Senators take calls from House members to remind them on the shared constituent services, and constituent surveys show Trump has deep, deep support for his choices on SCOTUS. Even in Alaska (Murkowski) and Maine (Collins).
Now here is where it gets interesting: the SCOTUS actuarial death clock. Notice here Ruth Bader Ginsberg has five years and ticking, but we know the fickle finger of fate may compromise that expectation after Scalia’s untimely demise. Supposedly, she exercises every day and has the iron will her tough demeanor exudes, and wants to beat both Maveth and Trump, but we could argue, “hey, Trump has a 50/50 chance for this one, and an almost sure thing if he wins again in 2020.”
Then there is Justice Sonia Maria Sotomayor. Her actuarial statistics are actually pretty good, but her Judicial robe plus size from the Juno label says otherwise. The web is awash with positive articles about her living with Type I Diabetes. But it is the weight that is the teller of the tale, as this recent picture of her compared to her svelter days at her nomination in May 29, 2009. There is an internet rumor Trump has said something about her medical condition privately. He need not have bothered if he did, as Sotomayor’s condition, weight gain, and work schedule would make it hard even for a nutritionist and a personal trainer to get her healthy enough to last the next six years at full capacity. Trump has a shot at this seat too.
Then there is Justice Stephen Gerald Breyer. His actuarial table says he only has seven more years to live. If Trump makes it in 2020, he probably will have that seat as well.
The we get to the true crown: gutting the notorious 9th Circuit of the bizarre liberals that have packed this court for decades and given conservatives more pain than any other. The age range is 44 to 85, currently made up of 25 judges (some with “Senior” status), the average age is 66, and there are twelve (12) seats held by judges 65 years old and over, and six held by judges 70 and over. If he holds on for eight years Trump can reshape this notorious Circuit back to its Conservative western Reagan Republican roots and re-shape the West for decades to come.
Buchanan, again, is too polite. And he often falls into the “we are doomed” camp of Conservatism. But with 153 vacancies on the United States Courts nationwide Trump has the opportunity to reshape America back into her recognizable self. We won, and let’s just quietly keep winning while the MSM bloviates about the offensive zeitgeist of the moment.
James Noel Ward
Paris, France
The Media’s Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wounds
It strikes me as coincidental that this Ramos nut-job, a violent narcissist and now a murderer, exhibits these psychopathic tendencies when he just can’t believe he wasn’t respected. He can’t fathom that this women he no doubt awkwardly confronted just wasn’t interested in him, how could she turn down such a thoughtful “gentleman “!?? He laid awake nights slowly seething about this paper making him look bad until it came to this violent conclusion. My point is that this narcissism and self importance are the very same tendencies these journalists have. They think we should all love and respect them, and can’t possibly fathom that we don’t look to them for the truth, or that we think that they have no credibility. Why, they’re out changing the world, how could they be the enemy of the people?! They have the same worldview as Ramos, he’s one of their own at heart, he just took it to the next level. A tragic irony to say the least, really.
Michael Christiansen
San Diego, California
The Loneliness of the Cord-Cutter
This is why I am so grateful I learned the genetic fallacy ages ago. I vehemently disagree with Briggs often, and then find this gem where he hits every point about the cordcutting phenomenon that I have been thinking and have never seen so wonderfully stated. And I say this as a cordcutter, as an older, single man who truly prefers watching what I want, when I want, on whichever device I want (I do not use any streaming service, though, I have my old school ways… *cough* alt.binaries). I don’t enjoy sitting with others and watching anything, I don’t have any interest in being interrupted, etc. But Briggs has me rethinking my ways, reexamining the experiences I may be missing out on, and that must be a sign of good writing.
I see cordcutting as similar to religion. In both cases, technology has brought forth previously unavailable access, knowledge and most importantly, choice. With respect to religion, this has lead to secular atomization, and the delusion that shared values, experiences, customs and community life can be replaced by nothing at all, for there is no need for any of these any longer. It’s like the New Soviet Man just needed wi-fi access to be realized. And again, I find myself kind of on the outside looking in: I am an atheist, yet I despise nearly every atheist I encounter, and as the years have gone by the most cherished people in my life are Christians.
Thank you Mr. Briggs for always, always being interesting and keeping at least one old man’s neurons firing.
Victor Abramson
Mesa, Arizona
Progressive Academia’s Threat to Free Speech
So these students are asking, “Given what we now know about stereotype threat and trauma and P.T.S.D., where is the tip of our nose, exactly?”
Given what ‘we’ know now? The students were fed all this because THEY are the next group of customers coming up for the next generation of the M&Ms of the Depressed. Change some attitudes about what ‘we know now’, invent a new M&M for the ‘condition’ and you’re off to the races. The tobacco industry depended always on the next generation to grow and then merely to survive because frankly, their customers died young. Of course, cigarettes being the noxious things they are, were mostly banned in common areas. But Pharma (ably assisted by psychiatry and their minions in academia) hit it just right. A steady stream of customers coached, if not coaxed into ‘needing” the M&Ms of the Depressed from an early age. Throw in over half-of-households broken by divorce as accelerants to these kids’ stress, pressure and throw in academic pressure and social media to boot. Then, convince the kids the M&Ms work. Far more profitable than cigarettes or booze to market, the M&Ms don’t kill the customer quite so directly. Plus, Pharma, the M&Ms, cost far less to produce and distribute. A gold mine. Sure, you lose some of your base to suicide and the mental ash heap, but there is loss in every business.
From wars to psychiatry, courts, divorce, #metoo, Hillary Clinton, ‘higher education’, name the issue and follow the money. PTSD my ass, that’s for cops, fire and military, period. Except there are meds to sell. Now everyone can have PTSD and here’s the M&M to fix it! M&Ms are fun for the whole family! I know a scam when it backs up in my drain. I really don’t blame them and I’m sorry I didn’t think of it myself, but don’t blame me for noticing the play.
Jim Christian
Boston, Massachusettes
So much in this to remark upon, but I will stick to this: a black man that does not capitalize his name is claiming to be a generic object. A common noun instead of a proper noun denoting him as an individual. This is someone so far down the rabbit hole of leftist ideology that he is unlikely to ever make it back.
Kelly Harbeson
In other words, simpler words, to get to the point: women tend to be more insane.
Connecting ‘sanity’ with health, in particular mental health and equating that health with reason, logical reasoning.
And that all fits nicely.
There’s an epidemic of insanity in the USA and it seems to be largely fueled by women.
The whole ‘leftist’ thing is riddled with insanity.
This could fairly easily be dealt with if it were recognised as a fact.
I’d surmise many of them would come to their senses if forced to confront the fact.
Arthur Brogard
Pasadena, California
“I am so embarrassed I am not drinking for the rest of the year.”
A year? Not to counsel one of the all-time greats, but Taki, Taki, it’s just booze. Past performance does not guarantee future results. The bigger embarrassment is to be “the one” at the party that doesn’t drink because of past performance. That ain’t Taki.
Jim Christian
Boston, Massachusetts
I’ve had the same thoughts for years.When things have to be equal, then all things must be equal.
The media is stuffed full of talking heads spouting this egalitarian stuff, most of them having been quite well educated and so concerned about equality. Well what about the inarticulate? What about people who’ve never read a newspaper or a book?
Why should they be denied the chance to share their views and get well paid for it. What about people who can’t act? Why should they be denied their chance in Hollywood?
And what about the fat slobs [like me]? Why have I been denied the chance to play football for my country just because I am fat, cowardly, and useless.
And what about people who want to be pilots and surgeons who are stupid, prone to panic attacks and mentally unstable?
It is symptomatic of the fascist state to discriminate against them.Thankfully when Jeremy Corbyn becomes prime minister,he is going to put an end to all this. Come to think of it, why can’t I be prime minister.I’m sick of people with ability, self discipline, ambition, charm, charisma, good looks depriving me just because I don’t have these attributes.
John Walsh
London, England
