"Ulysses S. Grant Launched an Illegal War Against ..." Topic

…the Plains Indians, Then Lied About It

"In July 1874, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led a thousand-man expedition into the Black Hills, in present-day South Dakota. He was under orders to scout a suitable site for a military post, a mission personally approved by President Ulysses S. Grant, but he also brought along two prospectors, outfitted at his expense. Although largely unexplored by whites, the Black Hills were long rumored to be rich in gold, and Custer's prospectors discovered what he reported as "paying quantities" of the precious metal. A correspondent for the Chicago Inter Ocean who accompanied the expedition was less restrained in his dispatch: "From the grass roots down it was ‘pay dirt.'" Taking him at his word, the nation's press whipped up a frenzy over a "new El Dorado" in the American West.

The United States was going into the second year of a crippling economic depression, and the nation desperately needed a financial lift. Within a year of Custer's discovery, more than a thousand miners had streamed into the Black Hills. Soon Western newspapers and Western congressmen were demanding that Grant annex the land…"
Main page
link

Amicalement
Armand

I guess that's why they tore his statue down tonight.

Glup!….

Do you said it's my fault?… (smile)

Amicalement
Armand

What? I can't believe the U.S. government would act in such a heinous manner. Oh wait, yes I can.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand

Not exactly a high quality piece of writing, however.

I grew up with and had my early opinions regarding US 'Indian policy' shaped by 'Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee' but this piece is highly selective and replete with manipulative value judgements. Not how I was taught to write history.

Glup!….

Amicalement
Armand