When it comes to the granting of human rights the real question here is, I think, are American Indians better off today than they were before the European invasion and this is a complicated issue with no clear answer.
To explain my position here I’ll need to explore uncharted history. Being as how no one knows what was going on during pre-history this can only be my opinion that I have based off of my readings on the subject. It’s important to note here that American Indian history has been passed down by word of mouth, not written.
From what I’ve read, during the time before European arrival, and during western expantion, American Indian tribes and nations varied in terms of their social and governmental structures. Some tribes were under complete anarchy in terms of governance, really just groups of like minded people living and hunting together and sharing religious ideology.
Other tribes had democratic type structures that could be called matriarchal in that women held what might be considered the highest position, but were themselves elected by a congregation of men who were, themselves, elected by the individual clans that made up the tribe.
The closest to western civilization would likely have been the Iriquois which was actually an alliance of tribes, not one of which had or sought greater influence over the others. Previously the tribes that made up the Iriquois warred with one another frequently, but came together in peace after someone they call The Great Peacemaker united them. Some believe the Great Peacemaker was born of a virgin which is an interesting side note.
One of the reasons western civilization had such trouble making deals with the American Indians was that none of the tribes had any single figure that could make decisions for the whole tribe or nation. None of the American Indian tribes had law enforcement, such a thing simply wasn’t necessary as “crime” was virtually unheard of.
Crimes against women in American Indian tribes were especially rare. It’s not that men and women were considered equal, but that there was never any question about the equivalence of their benefit to the tribe so it wasn’t necessary to explicitly state their equality, it was just assumed.
When western powers tried to negotiate with American Indian tribes they would invite their spiritual leaders, chiefs, to the negotiating table and make a deal. The problem was that the chiefs didn’t speak for everyone in the tribe, people made their own decisions and the chief only gave trusted advice that people accepted or rejected on an individual and per instance basis.
So, are American Indians better off today? Well they have access to more advanced technology, sure, but crime has skyrocketed. Again, though, that doesn’t fully answer the question.
American Indian tribes are a good representation of what life was like at the transition between the mesolithic and neolithic periods in human history. Civilization was in its early stages here and I believe, and there’s no difinitive answer here, that the level of crime, acceptance and peacefulness that existed in American Indian tribes also existed for the rest of humanity when they first embarked on their journey through civilization.
While considerably more peaceful than their western counterparts, American Indian tribes still waged war with one another. I see signs in these tribes that, left on their own, would ultimately have developed along the same path as their western brothers and sisters.
Left alone it is unlikely they would have advanced to that point by today, but eventually they’d have made it to where we are today and therefore not be any better off. So they might, technically, have been better off today without western intervention, but would, nonetheless, ultimately become saturated with crime, hatred, intolerance and total war somewhere down the line.
