Backstabber Report

Declaration of Independence Backstabs Native Americans

Most people have not read the Declaration of Independence. It set in writing the thoughts of freedom that has been recognized throughout the world as one of the greatest documents ever written. However, even a document like the Declaration of Independence has a line that can only be described as backstabbing. An untypically prejudiced line that didn’t look to the future, or the past, and was placed in the document to incite the masses. It set the tone for the expansion of the United States and the removal of Native Americans, by force, from their lands.

In the Declaration of Independence are the lines that points out the wrongs that King George made upon the colonial residents. One line not discussed, or given notoriety is this one:

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

To examine this statement, some facts should be noted.

Yes, Native Americans who were “enlisted” by the British to aid them did conduct warfare that was brutal. They seldom took prisoners and were known to kill everyone they could. However, this type of warfare was not their “rule.”

They were paid by the British for scalps – proof of a victory. Scalping was a new concept to them and was introduced by Europeans. It was not part of their culture. The British also turned a blind eye if atrocities were committed against women and children, as they set no ground rules to the natives, such as the taking of prisoners, or sparing of lives.

While the hot topic of slavery was avoided in the final draft of the Declaration of Independence it was of no consequence if the native inhabitants were given the added description of, “merciless Indian savages.” This descriptive was included without argument and if the document were fair it would have omitted it, or at the very least clarified the statement of those tribes fighting for the British, rather than placing all Native Americans in the same classification – which, by the way, included those Native Americans that later fought on the side of the colonists.

If not for Native American Indians the first British settlements wouldn’t have survived and flourished, as quickly as they did. Tribes gave them assistance and more often aided them, than fought them. Usually, skirmishes between the first settlements and the Indians were because of the colonists infractions of an agreement, or offense against the natives.

Nobody should change the Declaration of Independence, or revise it to state anything other than how it was presented. It stands on it’s merits, but people should be aware that it is flawed. It contains prejudice and uses it to promote the agenda of a free nation and an anti-Native American attitude in the American public that would last for generations. Nobody talks about it and it isn’t highlighted when people speak of the document.

Because, even with it’s glory, it contains a mark of self-serving rhetoric that most would rather not have revealed for public scrutiny.