We heard an insightful talk on the issues of Indians in America by  Eric Cheyfitz at the Becker/Rose café on Wednesday. He started his speech with a brief history of the genocides in various Indian counties; including ethnic cleansing, preventing tribes from getting proper vaccination, allowing crime to increase due to lack of law enforcement, etc..

And a non-obvious part of the genocide was the attempts to wipe out the Indian culture by forcing assimilation of some of the children.

Due to all these acts, the Indian population decreased from 5 million to 28 thousand people. Eric also

spoke about how claiming Indian lands was justified by the doctrine of discovery, i.e., the first Christian who discovers the land becomes the owner. Eric also touched upon example societies where the indigenous population has survived much better, e.g., in Bolivia where the population of native Americans is larger. Eric also touched upon other interesting aspects of the Indian culture, including the use of certain plants for medical treatment. Altogether, it was a thought-provoking talk, and made me want to learn more about the history of Indian tribes.