A little history from an old fart...
Prior to the early 1970's, the image of the native American (what everyone called the "indians") was this...
... savage race who want nothing more than to hatchet you in your bed.
This was the image projected in books, film and art from the time the europeans first landed until the early 1970's.
But then in then in the early 70's, (thanks hippies) we had the "noble red man' movement.
That is where native americans were pictured as peace-loving people, at one with nature, full of secret ancient knowledge of medicine, etc. Living in brotherhood with one another until the evil europeans came along, stole their land, and ruined it all.
This is now the prevailing theory, and it's as full of shit as it always was.
You want history, here's history...
When the US took control of the Northwest Territories following the revolutionary war, America knew that it was going to settle the land around Detroit.
So, the government sat down with every tribe who laid claim to the land, and negotiated a sale.
This became known as the Treaty of Detroit of 1807.
We negotiated in the native languages. We allowed them to name their price and pick their terms. They named their price, and we said "sure".
A few years after they were paid, however, the natives "changed their mind" and decided to take the land back (what, in pre-PC years, was known as "indian giving")
So what did they do? They sent out a raiding party to each of the farms to kill every man woman and child in the area outside of Detroit.
The settlers got wind of this, and all fled to Fort Detroit where they lived for a few years until things could settle down.
Bottom line... the native american's aren't allowed to call "dips" on an entire continent. They aren't the peace-loving natives at one with nature. Prior to us coming along, they spend most of their time killing each other in endless wars.
