ABSTRACT
True as much of this anti-European criticism is, it is not the whole truth. On the basis of the new received wisdom the layman could be forgiven for thinking that North America was once an idyllic hunting ground peopled by hosts of happy, carefree natives who were then corrupted by unscrupulous, expansionist Europeans. For example, one well-intentioned popular author claims to have written a ‘narrative of the conquest of the American West as the victims experienced it’ and how those who read it
may be surprised to hear words of gentle reasonableness coming from the mouths of Indians stereotyped in the American myth as ruthless savages…. The Indians knew that life was equated with the earth and its resources, that America was a paradise, and they could not comprehend why the intruders…were determined to destroy all that was Indian.
