What Ever Happened to the Indians?-A Look into the American Holocaust
For years and years students across the world have studied and memorized endless gory facts about massive genocides such as the Jewish Holocaust, the World War Two atomic bombs, and the religious Crusades. These were extremely significant events during the history of the world because they changed the lives of so many people. Millions of people were killed during these three events simply because of their religion or the color of their skin. All of these genocides were unique for one reason or another including the numbers of people killed or the time period in which it took place (Stannard 151). Several books, including school textbooks, often go into great detail describing these bloody events. However, as horrible as these extensive murders were, there was another massive genocide that occurred right in our own country that is barely acknowledged when compared with these other three, especially the Jewish Holocaust.
The extermination of almost all Native American Indians was easily one of the most horrific genocides in history, totaling nearly 100,000,000 deaths (Stannard 151). Yet this particular genocide is barely given any attention. In his book American Holocaust, David Stannard questions why we, the world as a whole, don't seem to care about the terrible things that the Europeans did to the Native American Indians. Also, why, when more Indians were killed, is there more emphasis on the Jewish Holocaust and other extreme events? And finally, why did the Europeans find it necessary to exterminate virtually every American Indian? He seeks to answer these questions and more through examples of torture techniques, European attacks on Indians, and other evidence that he researched.
Stannard comments on how there is a "traditional Eurocentric bias that lumps undifferentiated masses of 'Africans' into one single catego...