Adam Hochschild Quotes
The search for more good cotton-growing soil in areas that today are such states as Texas, Arkansas, Kansas and Oklahoma was a powerful incentive to force Native Americans off their traditional lands and onto reservations, another form of violence by the “military-cotton complex”..
Adam Hochschild, Historian, “Dyed in Blood”, New York Times Book Review, January 4, 2015
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Wayne played so many parts depicting whites in the process of expanding Westward that many people saw him as an expert on the history of the Westward Expansion. He did not comment on the whites who then kept huge ranches “selfishly” for themselves or those who selfishly would not share the mineral rich land that they had taken with anyone including the original Indian owners. So in this view, the Indians should have not been capitalists but they should have been socialists and shared their resources.
Jackson’s policies regarding Indians set back all the work of the earlier Presidents and created facts on the ground and attitudes that vex us to this day. In this occasion he said very forthrightly that it was his intention to deny Indians title to ANY land in the then United States. His idea was to send all the Indians to the Oklahoma Indian Territory and establish reservations for them there. Of course, as the Western states joined the Union, the Whites wanted those Indian Lands as well. See {643150} for other Jackson views on Indian policy.
The century to which he was referring was the 19th century---1800-1899.
The first Native American to become a General Officer. Appointed by President Grant in 1869
First Indian newspaper in the U.S.
The Indians did not have the wheel when the whites came, but soon there were wagons, stage coaches and railroads.
Most of her modern admirers tend to repress this quotation which is very embarrassing for most modern conservatives. However, there is a minority of thinkers who maintain that land, unused, is open to anyone who will make use of it to improve civilization. Many conservationists, in contrast, extol unused land for preservation.
The central Indian policy problem for Jefferson’s Administration was the fact that most Indians hunted for subsistence and the amount of land needed to support a hunting society was per capita much greater than an agricultural and especially an industrial one. Jefferson had no personal animosity against the Indians as many in his day did. But he perceived the need to obtain Indian lands for white agricultural use.
First Indian to hold the position
The meeting included several Indians, President Grant, and the Secretary of the Interior and the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Indians had been offered $25,000 and land in the Oklahoma Indian Territory in exchange for moving from their traditional lands.
The railroads that opened up the West are often used as examples of American corporate and entrepreneurial achievement. But private enterprise would not risk the capital for such a visionary and innovative scheme. It was the Federal Government which provided loans to start and paid for every mile of track with huge grants of land along the right of way. Then the Federal government provided the security and conducted numerous wars against the Indians to make the construction and operation possible. Had the Government and President Lincoln not pushed and supported the plan, there would have been no transcontinental railroad.
A part of this quotation is very often taken out of context by just quoting the phrase “prosecution of an exterminating war” implying that Lamar was urging genocide. However, the war was urged only if the Indians did not cease their raids and massacres. Further, he specifically excludes women and children from the “extinction”. In addition he holds out the option of forced “total expulsion” if the raids continue. Brutal his threats were. And given that the whites were taking the Indians traditional lands it is easy to see where there were reasons for Indian resistance to white expansion. However, there was another reason that Lamar and most of the white settlers wanted the Indians expelled: They wanted the land.
Adam Hochschild is an American author, journalist, historian and lecturer. His best-known works include King Leopold's Ghost (1998), To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion, 1914–1918 (2011), Bury the Chains (2005), The Mirror at Midnight (1990), The Unquiet Ghost (1994), and Spain in Our Hearts (2016).
