A headline besmirching Lord Curtis' favorite brew is greenlit? Unpossible!

I'm pretty sure subby just declared war on fark.

Uh. Thanks?

Heineken is way to sugary... Grolsh is better if you can get it before it goes skunky. Stella is always a safe bet. Kilkenny isn't bad.

*sigh* Yeah go ahead and apologize for something you had nothing to do with, I'm sure that anyone who is still offended after a couple hundred years will suddenly feel all better now. How about we issue one giant STFU to everyone involved in this?

Loki-L: arentol: Either way, it wasn't the US government going out of their way to expand the nation, it was population pressure a/o the promise of the chance to make their own life on their own land that caused most of the displacement of indians.

Yes this whole stealing the land and killing the natives was totally not the fault of the US government. The US was practically forced to do it. A victim of circumstances beyond their control. It was just a matter of much needed Lebensraum. You can't condem the US for that.

The US government actually issued more than one law and sent out more than one army trying to get settlers to stop expanding. But people are idiots and greedy. To blame it all on an entity like "the government" misses the point. The individual people wanted it.

Maxor: Magua will now change grey hair to dutchman. He used to respect the dutchman. Now he respects them no longer for their seed has grown weak and should not be allowed to go forth upon the earth.

arentol: The US government was not any more at fault than anyone else either.

FTFY But as a native I can tell you that I, personally, harbor no ill will. You, on the other hand, might want a good history book and *maybe* hope that the treaties aren't brought back up or (as I understand) a lot of what you eat might get a lot more pricey.

SeamusFerrell: So I can feel smug about that.

Umm... Not really unless you want to forget the blight in the 1840's that lead to a lot of Irish moving here and then the civil war and then the land grab after that which was, you know, when the most atrocities were committed. But if you want to be smug you go ahead but I'd suggest a history book instead.

It probably won't keep you as warm as "smug" will though. (I'm half Irish and half Native American but neither is a true half - I'm a mongrel.) You can pretty much ensure that if your ethnicity involves action in the American Civil War you're "people" are also involved in the wholesale slaughter of the native brown people. It's okay but if you're feeling smug you *might* want to reconsider that.

lotus: Is this strictly an American phenomenon, and why?

We were wealthy and they're inbred morons who bomb themselves into oblivion once every couple of generations. Don't take them to heart. The most amusing is that there are people actively involved in politics who cite them as a model and want to emulate them. Go figure.

To you and the rest... I can only speak for myself. I'm as native as you're probably going to get on Fark and I'm only about half. Most of *us* don't care in my experiences. We just want to live and let live and, you know, worry about the important shiat. I am not an American Indian scholar but I understand that if things got too improbably retarded there are a few treaties that people will be really pissed off about if they were decided in a world court that was truly unbiased. Seeing as such doesn't exist there's nothing to worry about though. I watched an interesting documentary on it (one of many really - I'm sort of documentary retarded/addicted) with Sam Donaldson (of all people) the other day. It was a few years old but a good watch. I can't recall the name but it was via netflix's online viewing if you want to watch it.

It was a shiatty time full of shiatty people. More than one agreement was broken by people from either side. Should the Jews of the current generation say sorry to the Germans for the people that they killed during WWII? To me it is as absurd as that idea. If people are truly offended then let's start by giving a review of the treaties in an unbiased world court.

Personally? I'd not benefit from anything in this area but I'd welcome the news and amusement factor. I understand that I have enough "proof" so that I could go live in either Maine (I already live here) or Canada and maybe get a bunch of free stuff from either government. Frankly I can afford it better than your government can but I speak only for myself. shiat happened, it sucked, move on.

How can I possibly apologize for something someone else did? Those people may not want to apologize.

Maybe in 400 years someone will apologize for apologizing for someone else and the apologizers will be sacked.