Racisim

Every time I read or learn more about the history of Native Americans, I am shocked at the way they were treated. It's astonishing to me how white males could show absolutely no compassion or sympathy to people just because they could not relate to or understand them. In our reading, "The Indian Question," it obviously seems ridiculous that Wovoka claimed the "Ghost Dance" would protect his people and get rid of white men, but it is also just as absurd to think about how the white soldiers felt threatened enough by these harmless, uneducated people to arrest them and then shoot at them with no warning. Within minutes, generations of Native American families were wiped out. The sentence, "Hundreds of Indians lay dead or wounded in the icy ground, along with scores of soldiers, most of them hit by their own fire," is a prime example of how this was one of the greatest misunderstandings of mankind in history. It seems like it will never be fully understood how humans could treat each other so poorly, not only in this situation but also with slavery, the treatment of African Americans up until the civil rights movement, and even the holocaust. Even today, in the year 2010 we still have parts of the world where people absolutely hate each other. It makes you wonder what needs to happen for people to think clearly?