Ma'am; ...I would like to do something to help to minimize your insensitivity and ignorance... I grew up in Indian Country, among members of Ojibway, a numerous and fierce people of many nations, and not far from Fort Mackinaw, the site of a famous Massacre during Pontiac's rebellion.... Now; I have broken bread with these people, played with them as children, fought with them, and prayed with them; and they are not just the original Americans, but some of the best. If I had to pick any man out of a crowd to make a last stand with, and the choice included a Native American of any nation, he would be my man... You have no idea, and no sensitivity, but I have no doubt that we had Native Americans serve this land and die for this country in all our wars... Even Canadian Natives have fought with us, and natives from my home, St. Ignace, have shed blood and born wounds for you to minimize. The Mackinaw Bridge had Iroquois and Ojibway on it, and others too...The day the cat walk broke free and two men died, the one with the sense to kick off his shoes and climb up wiith his fingers and toes was a native from Texas... I have worked with many natives, and I will confess that the only man who could walk a piece of Iron I could not was a native, Goodleaf Montour from the Mohawk Nation, of Kanawake, Montreal to you.... And I have worked with others who helped to build the World Trade Towers; and I have to ask you if it is only for money, because I have risked my life to build buildings that I have lived to see destroyed, and that was my life, and my effort down the tubes, gone forever... What people take too cheaply they value too little; and isn't that the problem with you???You sit down and thank God for this land that makes so many wealthy, and you never thank a native...I send clothes to NAHA, in South Dakota and some times cash... I send them as good and as much as I can afford to buy because those Lacota people are some of the poorest people in America, and we owe them, and I owe them, if my government does not take that debt seriously, then I will, and I take a charity tax break too... What does it take to drop a few good quality, warm clothes, or bedding, or a few bucks in the mail for a good, reliable reciept??? You don't have to make a habit of it... God Forbid; but try to understand that those people have to camp out on their rights to have them, and that natives, serving in the military, and unable to collect their mail have lost their property because they were not in residence...Look at how the government took the job of law enforcement from these people, and then, does not do the job... It is a fact, and has made the news, and it is a crime, and there is no excuse for taking native powers that have worked forever to substitute doing nothing.... Don't be ignorant... People knew what they were doing when they destroyed the Natives and their culture... What was done to the Lakotas to open the North West for little gain was purely criminal... We understood we were destoying a highly moral and decent people in the Iroquois... These were honest, intelligent people with a distinct, uncorrupted culture... It was not just a few million brown skinned savages and barbarians we killed, but part of our human cultural history... Can you say much about your people, and their exploits??? There was no Iroquois who could not tell you of his family six generations back...The excuse for killing Irish babies was the same used for the natives, that: nits make lice... You make yourself a fool when you say that this tragedy was not a crime... Where is the tragedy without crime???What would Macbeth, or Hamlet be without murder... Bodies were piled up in Romeo and Juliet... Orestes, and Oedipus began with crime... Our treatment of Natives to this very moment has been both crime and tragedy... What can you do to make it right??? Start with the truth... Thanks...Sweeney

My god. I have never read such circular closet thinking than what I just skimmed through in that brain dead article. So, a million anecdotal stories of germ-warfare pledged by numerous tribes, isn't enough for you Mona? Mona, that's such a drunken half ass attempt at naming a child anyway.
I can't fathom your heartlessness. I am a 5 percenter, and I can't imagine how full blooded native americans would react to this article. If what we did to the Native Americans wasn't genocide, i'd hate to see what you think of Darfur, or the american slave trade.
Why would you even consider being a cheerleader for anti-sympathetic native american views? Oh yeah, that's right, you can't break the mold on this site. You have to be just as blind and sheepish as the great closet thinkers (And I do mean they need to come out) Bill O'reacharound, and Ann the man coulter.
You are complaining that we are teaching history the wrong way, when the bullshi_t 'everyone was happy' pilgrim story was fed to all children growing up since it happened. How can you dare to turn the tide of actual history when many students are learning the true atrocities of us Anglo-americans. You are in essence promoting a wool over the eyes of every conscious american. Yeah, columbus did rape and pillage. Deal with it. Yes native americans did kill european settlers, but I'd be tempted to take drastic measures if all my land and people began disappearing. Keep reinforcing to the moronic kool-aid drinking Red-Crowd. i'm sure their racist views will always bolster your readership.
You are a cold, selfish, ignorant joke of an op-ed columnist. It baffles me that you actually have a job, when someone dripping penultimate talent, like myself, can't find work anywhere. I pray your spirit guides leave you, if they already haven't. I hope your final resting spot is as cold and hollow as your heart. You don't deserve a deity's attention.

Re: J;...Why do you like those esses so much??? You might be cool if you could leave your trash reactionary friends behind, and join the Human race...Better run fast if you do...There is still a bounty on you...Thanks...Sweeney

You, Mona, are an idiot.

I find it truly disturbing that you have no compassion for anyone or anything except the tradition that you were brought up with. Sorry that you are so intellectually dead that you have had no curiosity to question the drivel you were fed in your lackluster education. There is a big world out there. Much of what you were taught is untrue. Investigate a bit. In fact- if you were well read, you might have even stumbled over some of the this information without even trying. A NY Times best seller a few years ago - Lies my teacher told me covered this indepth.

Your artilce is extremely poorly cited. Why should we celebrate the death and destruction of a culture? Just becuase you grew up with the myth? Stupidity is no excuse for bias.