Lincoln and Native Americans

[David Lockmiller]

(06-29-2016 05:31 AM)LincolnMan Wrote:  This is helpful everyone. Glancing on the internet there seems to be a lot of negatives about Lincoln and Native Americans. However, I have found this to be true about any subject. About the order by Lincoln to order the execution of over thirty Native Americans- not one of the sites that described Lincoln in negative terms regarding the event mentioned that he spared over two hundred fifty lives that had been condemned to death regarding the "crimes." I find this to be intellectually dishonest. This is also true of those who take Lincoln's words out of context to "prove" Lincoln was "truly" a racist (usually quotes from the debates).

We discussed the subject of Lincoln voiding the execution of hundreds of Indians by the state of Minnesota at great length on another posting thread. In fact, Lincoln sent one of his secretaries as I recall to make sure that justice was done as he saw justice. He almost lost the state of Minnesota in the next presidential election as a result. That woman historian that liked Mary Lincoln so much actually came to Washington to demand that every one of the Indians should be executed.

You might like the following modern story from today's New York Times:

“Part-Time Jobs and Thrift: How Unpaid Interns in D.C. Get By”
New York Times By KATIE SHEPHERD JULY 5, 2016

WASHINGTON — When Dominic Peacock found out he had been selected for an unpaid summer internship at the National Congress of American Indians here, he looked up the airfare from Albuquerque, rejected the option, and boarded a bus and rode 44 hours.

Now, after a long day thumbing through bills and working for legislation to protect tribal artifacts, he walks a few blocks to a hotel restaurant where he buses tables until 1 a.m. His workweek — 60 to 75 hours long — affords him one day off to catch up on chores in his American University dorm room and explore the city.

“This is the schedule that I want,” said Mr. Peacock, a senior at the University of New Mexico and member of the Acoma Pueblo tribe. “I’m going to finish this. I don’t care what it costs.”

When Mr. Peacock isn’t at his internship or busing tables, he likes to visit the Lincoln Memorial because it reminds him of his tribe’s history. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln officially recognized the sovereignty of several Pueblo tribes in New Mexico for the first time.