have been wildly, continually, barbarically abused from the moment of the Spanish invasion of the Americas.
Taking the time to ask questions, then research will reveal what has always been intentionally concealed, just as US American history has buried and whitewashed European behaviors toward indigenous and enslaved and slaughtered people. It's only right, not right-wing to care enough to start searching for answers, there are millions of starting places which will lead to far better information that what we have been fed through perception-molding in "our" culture:
~ ~ ~
Counting the Dead: Estimating the Loss of Life in
the Indigenous Holocaust, 1492-Present
Thornton, Stannard, and other analysts have emphasized the significance of wars
and genocide in the Indigenous Holocaust. Thornton has cited the early Spanish
conquistadore- turned-priest Bartolome de Las Casas’ estimate that between three and four
million Native people originally lived on the island that came to be known as Hispaniola.41
Within a few decades of the European invasion, most of them had died as the result of
wars, genocide, enslavement, disease, and related factors.42 Wars and genocide, combined
with “firestorms of disease” and related factors, led to perhaps 40 million deaths in presentday Mexico, Central America, Peru, and Chile by the late 1560s.43
In the centuries that
followed, both Spanish colonial authorities and newly independent states throughout the
Americas continued to wage war against Indigenous people and engage in genocidal
violence. Some of the major conflicts in South America included the Arauco War in
present-day Chile; the Guarani War in Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina; the Rebellion of
Tupac Amaru in Peru; the “Pacification” of Araucania in Chile; and the Conquest of the
Desert in Argentina.44 Thornton has pointed out that hundreds of thousands of Indigenous
people perished during wars with the Europeans and their descendants in what is now the
United States.45 He has also noted that when the Indigenous lives lost to “blatant genocide”
in California, Texas, and other areas are added to the toll from official wars, the total
number of violent deaths is certainly much higher.
. . .
Widespread starvation and malnutrition, the deleterious effects of forced labor, alcoholism,
demoralization and despair, declining fertility, and other factors also contributed to the
Indigenous Holocaust.51
As remarked earlier, the demographic collapse of the Indigenous population in the
Western Hemisphere and in the United States ended at the beginning of the twentieth
century, but the cumulative human costs of invasion, conquest, and colonialism by
Europeans and their descendants have continued to grow. Governments in Mexico,
Guatemala, Brazil, Peru, and other Latin American countries have continued to murder
Indigenous activists and other Indigenous people.52 In comparison, the level of violence
has been lower in the U.S., but the federal government and vigilantes have killed Native
people intermittently since 1900. 53
Indigenous people living in the U.S. have also died in
wars abroad and continue to be murdered by police at a higher rate than any other
demographic group.54 Moreover, highly disproportionate levels of extreme poverty,
unemployment, poor housing, preventable diseases, poor health care, drug abuse, and
suicide have continued to plague Indigenous populations throughout the Western
Hemisphere, including in the United States.55 Not surprisingly, research in the past three
decades has confirmed significant numbers of excess deaths in the U.S. Indigenous
population.56
More:
https://www.se.edu/native-american/wp-content/uploads/sites/49/2019/09/A-NAS-2017-Proceedings-Smith.pdf
~ ~ ~
It's a lesson which must been learned deliberately through caring enough to look for the answers, the "racial" or "ethnic" or impoverished peoples the culture has kicked aside will continue to be persecuted, abused, misrepresented in every conceivable way until they have regained their violently stolen freedom, strength, and self-respect.
Take the time to investigate the way the Peruvian power structure has treated ALL leaders who would aspire to help the indigenous Peruvians, and other minorities within the country. It will keep you busy.
= new reply since forum marked as read
