Incrementally Incremental

I remember back in the very early 1600’s when this group of white folks calling themselves the Pilgrims landed on the shores of my country. See, I was an American Indian back then and the story I’m about to relate is quite incredible and factual, I might add.

When the white folks first arrived we welcomed them, at first cautiously and later as friends and equals. They had their ways and we had ours. We shared feasts together. Some of their single men wedded some of our maidens.

But after awhile the white folks wanted to “buy” some of our prime land for “farming.” We neither understood how we could sell land nor did we understand farming but in an effort to keep on friendly terms with these hairy-faced white folks we agreed.

It wasn’t long after that the white folks started keeping us off our own land with fences and by using force. These were our lands on which we hunted and fished to feed ourselves and make clothing and shelter. The white folks said “why don’t you farm?” We said, “What means this ‘farming’.”

Then more and more white folks came and we were squeezed off our ancestral lands and pushed farther to the west where we encountered Indians from other tribes who would just as soon we stayed where we were.

Still the whites kept coming and pushing us and the other tribes farther westward until we had crossed the Mississippi River and went out onto the Great Plains. By then, through battles and natural attrition my tribe had dwindled to nothing. Then I died.

In my next life I was one of the white men who had pushed the American Indians off their homelands and resurrected them onto reservations throughout the country. Mostly on land we, the white people found uninhabitable.

Captains Lewis and Clark were the first whites most of the western Indians had ever seen and they were considered gods in some tribes, especially the black man York who was invited to couple with Indian women along the way so as to start a tribe of very large Indians. (And just like “Jimmie the Greek” I’ll probably catch hell for that statement.)

Many Indians asked why the whites were traveling through this land, to which Lewis answered, “To build a road to the western waters for white Americans to use. They will not bother you. They are simply passing through.”

“How many will there be?” asked the Indians.

“Oh, not that many”, replied the white man.

But more settlers came wanting more land adjacent to water. They wanted the best land they could get along rivers and streams in order to get water to their stock and fields. The Indians couldn’t understand fences, fields, farming. They became pensive. They also needed to be able to get to water and good grazing for their horses.

One day an Indian was sitting talking with a friendly white man. The Indian asked “How many,” again and his white friend said, sadly “as many as the stars I’m afraid.”

And the whites came and came and came. There was no stopping their numbers. They indiscriminately slaughtered the buffalo, plowed up ground and planted crops. They squeezed the Indian off his land and put him on a reservation... again.

More whites, mostly Anglican, Protestant or Catholic. Irish, German, Austrian, Italian, Scandinavian immigrated to the United States demanding more and more Indian land. Mostly hardworking decent folks looking for a better life but with cultures and beliefs vastly different from the American Indians. They had their little enclaves and settlements but in the end most all of them learned to get along with each other... kinda’.

The African Americans were here since the late 1600 as slaves at first, then as citizens after the civil war. Their numbers have increased greatly squeezing white folks from the south.

Then came the Chinese to help build railroads across this vast nation. Squeezing white America from the West. And then the Mexicans came up from the south land to harvest crops the whites wouldn’t... or couldn’t. They put the squeeze on white America from the South.

Now the Guatemalans, Nigerians, Somalians, Ukrainians, Russian Mafia, Chinese Tongs, Mexican and Central American gangs, Pakistanis, Haitians, Muslims and Cubans are all gaining access to this country, taking white jobs, getting college degrees that are not available to white folks because there are too many immigrants “more worthy” and more needing an education.

Just as the whites were interlopers and unwanted by the early day Indians, such are the hoards of immigrants, legal and illegal who are infiltrating this country today, untethered.

Mostly from cultures, religions and beliefs vastly different from what we white Americans believe. A great majority are here in search of the “entitlements and benefits.” Some are here to work. Some are here to do harm to the United States. Hard to tell which, from which at times.

Sometimes I feel like an American Indian. Get it?

That’s it for now folks. Thanks for listening