[books i've been reading]

The Ohio River, a principal route for pioneers pushing westward along its 981-mile course from Pennsylvania through Kentucky and Indiana to Illinois, was the scene of fierce battles between… Native American tribes and white settlers. Tapping journals, letters, diaries and government memoranda from 1768 to 1799, and fleshing out his panoramic chronicle with reconstructed dialogue adapted from primary sources, historian-novelist Eckert has fashioned an epic narrative history of the struggle for dominance of the Ohio River Valley… Eckert emphasizes the sudden, overwhelming movement of whites into Native American lands and the Indians’ initial restraint and tolerance, followed by furious raids, wars and expulsions. – from Publisher’s Weekly

Allan Eckert’s That Dark and Bloody River is by far one of the best books I’ve ever read—and it’s also one of the most gut-wrenching. The summary on the back of the book tells readers that this narrative history reveals the heart of the American pioneer—and as the Bible tells us, the heart is deceitfully wicked indeed. Reading this book, I was overwhelmed with waves of legitimate shame for what my ancestors did two hundred years ago. Our savagery and deceit made possible Manifest Destiny, and “from Sea to Shining Sea” became a reality through perverse manipulation and downright murder. Andy Waugh puts it quite poignantly: “How do you pull off a genocide without anyone noticing? Do it slowly, and do it against people who are so outwardly and culturally unlike you that you can buy into the devil’s lie that they aren’t human.” I sympathize with modern-day native Americans who remain deeply wounded by what happened. We the Perpetrators think, “Why can’t they just let it go?” But if MY heritage were bloodily deceived and exterminated, if MY culture’s future had been wiped out in the name of God, if MY beautiful lands were replaced by factories, strip malls, and subdivisions, would I be any less wounded?

What strikes me the most is the portrait of these events we find in the high school history books contrasted with what actually happened. The Indians are portrayed as bloodthirsty savages, whites as the civilized pinnacle of society, and westward expansion is seen as the United States claiming what is rightfully hers. The reality is that the Indians were far more tolerating of us than we were of them; we were far more eager to get bloods on our hands, and the Indians restrained themselves with much patience and dignity as our white ancestors stole their lands and killed them for fun. When the Indians had enough, then indeed they became “savages”—but their savagery only mirrored our own, and indeed, ours was worse. It is an interesting note of history that the “savagery” of Indians wasn’t a concrete part of their culture but a reaction to the savagery they faced from white settlers. Savagery begets savagery. And it just so happens that the Indians—well-versed in hit-and-run tactics, better sharpshooters than we were, and adept at fighting in the land they called their own—happened to be better at savagery than we were. Because we were the victors, they have retained their “savagery” but ours has been replaced with God-fearing dignity. That’s how history works.