> Be careful about confusing fanciful claims with history; be careful about substituting belief for knowledge.

I find this kind of superior attitude offensive, as if you're in possession of the truth and others aren't. Most of us on this list are non-professionals, so unless you are an established authority on this topic, I feel it's more polite (and helpful) to cite evidence rather than simply bludgeon an opponent with political invective.

Two sources with something to say on this topic can be found at:

http://hal.lamar.edu/~browntf/Churchill1.htm

and

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a5_066.html.

Apparently the charge of using smallpox to kill off the plains Indians did not originate with Ward Churchill or other "radical Indians," but was common during the 19th Century. That doesn't make it true, but it also doesn't change the fact that European diseases decimated Native American populations, or that the U.S. government has been anything approaching benevolent to them.

Bill Cross

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