Interactive time-lapse map of the transfer of Native land between 1776 and 1887

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2014/06/17/interactive_map_loss_of_indian_land.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top

by DoreenMichele • 7 years ago

50 25 7 years ago

Highly recommend the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee which covers the last half of the 19th century time period and recounts the absolutely heartbreaking history of Native Americans going from having a reasonable amount of land, much of it useful, to having almost nothing after betrayal after betrayal by the US government. It’s unfortunate that this kind of treatment of indigenous peoples is so common around the world throughout history.

Camillo• 7 years ago

The map's attribution link is to a site with the poignant (if anachronistic) title "Invasion of America".

If history is written by the victors, surely Americans are now the vanquished.

thatoneuser3• 7 years ago

It's sad af, but it's human nature. Same shit why we can't trust our grandparents to handle their own money when they get older. Some slimey fuck out there is willing to put them in a poor grave to make a buck.

At this point I just hope the natives eventually make it into the modern world better. Pretty much all there is to do :/

ordu4• 7 years ago

It's sad af, but it's human nature.

Not it is not a nature, it is nurture.

One shouldn't use appellation to a nature in such a matters. Compare: rape is bad, but the sad thing it is in a male nature, isn't it? No, rape is bad and intolerable. It doesn't matter what male nature is, because male is perfectly capable to curb his impulses. If some is not, they should use some kind of medication.

It doesn't matter what the nature of human is, he is capable to be nice to natives, but he just do not want to, because profits are more desired.

Itsdijital2• 7 years ago

Ehhh, unfortunately I don't think it is that clear cut. Otherwise you're left arguing that gays either made a choice to be gay or were raised to be gay.

thatoneuser3• 7 years ago

You aren't even making a counter argument, you're just being emotional. Yeah sorry to tell you - not everyone's going to be nice. If that were the case we wouldn't have to make laws to protect citizens from one another. I'm not condoning anything. You just want to beat your chest and act holier. You're the problem.

cs702• 7 years ago

Most parts of the world have gone through similarly horrific waves of border expansion and contraction at the cost of human lives and cultures, going back to the beginning of civilization.

Take the borders of Europe, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UY9P0QSxlnI

I doubt the expansion of, say, the Roman Empire in what we now call Europe and Africa was any less violent than the expansion of the English-speaking world in what we now call North America.

Humankind's track record on this earth is full of atrocities.

protomyth3• 7 years ago

One big difference is Africa and Europe didn't have the one sided die-off from disease that North America did. Africa had sections that were quite dangerous for Europeans, and when Europeans had their plagues it was pretty universal.

If Africa had disease outbreaks like North America, then it would have probably gone the same way as North America, even more so really given the shorter distances.

betterunix2• 7 years ago

While there was certainly a mass death from European diseases, it happened long before 1776. The unfortunate and shameful truth is that the United States violated agreements with the Native Americans and repeatedly failed to respect the various tribes' right to rule their territories (not to mention the war crimes and genocidal killing).

banku_brougham• 7 years ago

Shorter distances?

adamsea2• 7 years ago

No doubt. That is why it is so important to acknowledge and critique the past, to work towards the present and the future being less atrocity-filled.

elil17• 7 years ago

It seems ridiculous for Slate to call it the “transfer” of land - the map calls itself a map of the “Invasion of America,” a far more accurate title

Zarkonnen• 7 years ago

Yeah, "transfer" is so... bloodless as to be a lie.

aatharuv• 7 years ago

Theft would be more accurate.

deogeo• 7 years ago

Conquest would be most accurate.

ficklepickle• 7 years ago

Kind of sad to see all the rationalizations and what-aboutism going on here.

It is horrifying on a scale that most of us, fortunately, probably can't even appreciate.

How we continue to treat each other and our environment does not bode particularly well for humanity.

Interactive time-lapse map of the transfer of Native land between 1776 and 1887

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