Spruce Gum and Pumpkins; Anything Else?

sowing the seeds of democracy? not hardly

sowing the seeds of democracy? not hardly

Basement Joe’s handlers had him issue a Proclamation On American Indian, Anti-Columbus Day last week, and before beginning his recital of ll the sad things that happen when a technologically superior culture meets a stone age one, he repeats what has become a standard, but false meme:

Today, we recognize Indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made on every aspect of American society. [empasis added]

Not to be outdone by an old man in his pajamas, Kampallawalla Ding Dong chimed in yesterday with her own excoriation of America and its “shameful past”, because well, that is what she does.

So given all this praise for our benighted victims, you might be curious to learn what “immeasurable positive impact” the Indians have had on our society, other than bringing us Tonto, and providing fodder for some great cowboy adventure movies. I certainly was, because until now I haven’t been aware of any. Accordingly, I’ve spent much of the morning (I know, get a life) researching the matter, and my original understanding was confirmed.

When pressed to enumerate the Indians’ contributions to modern society, their defenders come up with a pathetic list of “accomplishments”: spruce gum made from sap (which was the only gum my father allowed us to “enjoy”, growing up. It’s very much an acquired taste, and one that was easily un-acquired when I reached adulthood); roads named after them (a common ploy of politicians when buying off people they have no intention of helping otherwise; see, eg, Martin Luther King Boulevards, found in every U.S. slum); and a few childhood games. When that meagre inventory is exhausted they turn to the great lie: Benjamin Franklin modeled our own form of government after the system employed by the Iroquois confederacy. Completed untrue, even though it’s repeated ad nauseam by every woke scholar and clueless college radical. We’ll get to the debunking of that myth, but first, here’s what our own government comes up with in the way of those noble savages’ accomplishments, published in a guide intended for use in our schools. It provides an exhaustive list, though most are insignificant, and the rest are just damn lies.

“Contributions to Society”:

Many times, the only thing people remember about Native Americans are the negative things-but they contribute many positive things and should be remembered for them. …..

[O]ther than art, the Native Americans have influenced many areas of American living. Some of these things were begun long before the arrival of the European settlers on North American land.

DID YOU KNOW THAT ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF NATIVE AMERICAN LIFE IS ECOLOGY? People of today have just begun to think about this.

[Contra, “Conservation Timeline, 1801-18900”, George Caitlan, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, John Wesley Powell, Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, for starters]

The Native Americans have always had a deep respect for the land. There was a love of every form of life. The Native Americans did not kill anything they could not use.

[Contra, “The Near Extinction of the American Bison”:

The most efficient technique was what Crow Indians called "driving buffalo over embankments," which involved enticing and leading buffaloes to the edges of cliffs or bluffs up to seventy feet high, then driving them over to instant death or a broken back or leg or other crippling incapacity, ended by a thrust from a lance or blow from a stone maul.

Many European observers were struck by gourmandizing as well as by what struck them as subsequent "profligacy" or "indolence." At times, Indians used everything. But on occasions they did not, and the observers remarked upon "putrified carcasses," animals left untouched, or Indians who took only "the best parts of the meat." Sometimes Indians were said to kill "whole herds" only for the fat-filled tongues.]

DID YOU KNOW THAT MANY OF THE FOODS WE EAT TODAY WERE FIRST GROWN BY NATIVE AMERICANS? Native Americans learned to grow and use many different kinds of food that many people eat today, never considering that they first came from Native Americans: potatoes, beans, corn, peanuts, pumpkins, tomatoes, squash, peppers, nuts, melons, and sunflower seeds.

[No mention of tobacco, that great American cash crop so beloved by taxing authorities. Now that was useful plant.]

DID YOU KNOW THAT MANY OF THE GAMES YOU PLAY TODAY CAME FROM NATIVE AMERICANS? Canoeing, snowshoeing, tobogganing, lacrosse, relay races, tug-of-wars, and ball games are just a few of the games early Native Americans played and still enjoy today.

[White, upper-class suburban families would collapse without lacrosse travel teams, and so owe a huge debt of gratitude here. Otherwise …]

And now, talk of burying the lede, we now, finally, reach the point of this post:

Here’s the Big Lie, first promulgated by a few academics back in the 50s, and now treated as accepted truth in our schools, Kindergarten through Graduate, the media, and in our halls of government:

(From that same government publication)

DID YOU KNOW THAT THE IDEA FOR THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WAS ADOPTED FROM THE NATIVE AMERICANS? Benjamin Franklin said that the idea of the federal government, in which certain powers are given to a central government and all other powers are reserved for the states, was borrowed from the system of government used by the Iroquoian League of Nations.

This is complete, utter bullshit, a lie that’s been put forth in the face of all evidence to the contrary since at least the 1950s. For a thorough debunking of this claim, see Egloff, Nancy Dieter, “ ‘Six Nations of Savages’ Benjamin Franklin and the Iroquois League of Nations” Dissertation Thesis and Masters Project, Paper 1539625405

I read all 65 pages this morning, plus appendix, this morning — see previous aside, “life, get one” — and Ms. Egloff nails it.

“Pretty Little Stories of History — A study of an American Myth”

… In the Franklin-Iroquois case, those historians who believe that Franklin had an Iroquois model enjoy quoting Franklin's words. In a letter dated March 20, 1751, Franklin wrote James Parker, printer and postmaster of New York, expressing his ideas for a union of all mainland British colonies. The letter included this statement:

It would be a very strange Thing, if Six Nations of ignorant Savages should be capable of forming a Scheme for such an Union, and be able to execute it in such a Manner, as that it has subsisted Ages, and appears indissoluble; and yet that a like Union should be impracticable for ten or a Dozen English Colonies, to whom it is more necessary, and must be more advantageous; and who cannot be ^upposed to want an equal Understanding of their Interests.

The danger occurs when it is inferred from this statement that Franklin respected the Iroquois to such an extent that he used their League as a direct model for his own thoughts. To take the point further, a danger is involved when anyone stretches historical fact, possibly to twist and distort it to his or her advantage. Thomas A. Bailey, studying myths in the 1960s, believed that most of the "pretty little stories of history are in some degree false, if pursued to their smallest details." He defined a historical myth as "an account or belief that is demonstrably untrue, in whole or substantial part." Bailey discouraged the use of myths as a way to teach American values. An objective historian needs to try to find the needle of truth in the haystack of distortion.
Dieter Egloff wrote her dissertation in 1987, and it was approved and published by her university, Wlliam and Mary. That would never, could never happen today.