Land Disputes Quotes
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.
This is an important quotations for two reasons. First, one of the white Europan myths in the colonial era was that the Native America had not concept of land ownership and title. This quotation clearly refutes that/ Second, this shows that some Europeans coming to the new world opposed the view that the white Christians and a moral right to the Native American “heathen” land. A few like Williams did not.
Violating these Iroquois “environmental regulations” were not mere technicalities but were enforced by war if necessary. The Iroquois were very sophisticated diplomatically and had appointed Garangula, a chief of one of the Iroquois tribes, to be their Ambassador Plenipotentiary in negotiations with the French.
The papacy and the Lombards were in a dispute over control of various land holdings. The Pope assumed that leprosy was wrought by God to evil people and in his view the Lombards were that so they would definitely have leprosy.
