When I was a kid in school, they made such a big deal about us learning every state and its capital; I certainly never remember being taught about the Native American nations or their locations or anything about the systematic genocide that was exacted upon the peoples of our land. While we have slowly (all to slowly) become aware of our legacy with regard to the Africans who we enslaved and the stain that lingers on our collective minds to this day, as a culture, we are barely aware of the Native American cultures, who these people were or their cultures. They meld together into a single notion of "people who were here when we got here and who lived in teepees," and that's about it. Everything else is learned from Hollywood's western movies ...films like Tarza, Son of Cochese," where they dress up Rock Hudson in what Hollywood thinks ALL Native Americas look. And the many rich cultures that existed on American soil for eons before White Eyes got here has been systematically, I would suggest painfully ignored. Our modern culture barely even acknowledges Native American history and these, some of the worse sins of our fathers . This documentary is essential i educating use so we can have an incite into who we really are, as painful as that might be.
500 Nations is told mostly in the exact words of those committing the atrocities, giving a rare authenticity to the narrative and keep everything anchored in the historical context. Having seen this documentary, the next time you hear those cliched discussions about how is that that ordinary people living ordinary lives in Germany could wind up committing those atrocities toward the Jews, it might give us pause to question how good European Christians forming a new country could do what THEY did to the natives who were here long before White Eyes stepped foot on this continent, bringing with them their diseases and alcoholism and religion and perverted ideas of ownership of the land, water and air, but worse, their propensity for violence and genocide. This documentary needs to be as universally taught in schools as is "Catcher in the Rye" or "The Great Gatsby."
500 Nations is told mostly in the exact words of those committing the atrocities, giving a rare authenticity to the narrative and keep everything anchored in the historical context. Having seen this documentary, the next time you hear those cliched discussions about how is that that ordinary people living ordinary lives in Germany could wind up committing those atrocities toward the Jews, it might give us pause to question how good European Christians forming a new country could do what THEY did to the natives who were here long before White Eyes stepped foot on this continent, bringing with them their diseases and alcoholism and religion and perverted ideas of ownership of the land, water and air, but worse, their propensity for violence and genocide. This documentary needs to be as universally taught in schools as is "Catcher in the Rye" or "The Great Gatsby."