Warning: Undefined variable $num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 126
Warning: Undefined variable $posts_num in /home/shroutdo/public_html/courses/wp-content/plugins/single-categories/single_categories.php on line 127
In Wolfe’s article, he argues that the colonist’s settlement process was an act of genocide towards Native Americans. He first defines genocide as a form of elimination, in which a group of people are forced to assimilate and are looked upon as “non-Indian,” thereby no longer racially stigmatized. In the colonists’ eyes, the “Indians” were no longer an obstacle to expansion once assimilated because they adapted to the colonial culture and treated land as the colonists did. They gave up their large territory and became part of the American culture.
Wolfe argues that genocide is not just the mass murder of a population but also the destruction of a society. A post below, believes that Wolfe’s argument for Native American genocide should be termed “cultural genocide.” However, Wolfe explicitly denies calling this act as cultural genocide because it devalues the experience of the Indigenous people who went through similar experiences, especially in comparison to the “prime” example of genocide, the Holocaust (402). He argues that the term “cultural genocide” implies an almost dismissive attitude towards the experience of the Native Americans specifically because people normally think of the Holocaust, a case of mass murder, as a much more malicious act. Wolfe states that what the Indigenous people went through was just as cruel as what occurred during World War II, only we as culture do not see it so because the natives were not outright killed but eliminated through assimilation. We forget that an entire culture was lost and forgotten, that the natives were forced to adapt or face death.
Others have pointed out that colonial settlement cannot be called genocide due to the intent behind expansion. The colonists had not removed the Native Americans with the intent of destroying a population, but rather, removed an obstacle out of their way and death was an unintentional consequence. While this may be partially true, we forget that for a lot of colonists, death was a consequence they knew but did not care about. Colonists would forcefully remove Native Americans by burning villages without warning or forcing them to march miles without the necessary supplies. I would argue that knowing death was a high possibility due to one’s actions and then ignoring it is just as bad or the same as purposefully murdering someone.