“You can’t judge the past by the present. One of history’s grand maxims. It’s convenient, and it’s specious.
This needs to be said.
In the history of Indian – White relations, it is clear that
politicians, reformers, the clergy, the military, in fact the whole lot, knew
the potential for destruction that their policies and actions could have ... ...
... ... And they were able to make these decisions
with easy confidence, because they weren’t betting with their money. They weren’t
betting with their communities.
They weren’t betting with their children.
Ignorance has never been the problem. The problem was and continues to be
unexamined confidence in western civilization and the unwarranted certainty of
Christianity. And arrogance. Perhaps it is unfair to judge the past by the
present, but: it is also necessary.”
Dr Thomas King,
The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North
America, pp 264 – 265
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