Changes

:::::Infectious disease is the reason that the numbers are ''so'' staggering.  Policies like Indian Removal in the 1830s were undoubtedly acts of genocide.  You could probably add the killing off of the American bison insofar as this was done to deliberately deprive Plains tribes of their means of subsistence. (The overhunting was done for profit, but the government condoned it as a means of destroying the Indians.)  But referring to broad demographic trends as genocide is probably a misuse of the term, since no one was deliberately pursuing the extinction of an ethnic group for 400 solid years.  [[User:Fishal|Fishal]] 15:57, 3 December 2008 (EST)

:::::Infectious disease is the reason that the numbers are ''so'' staggering.  Policies like Indian Removal in the 1830s were undoubtedly acts of genocide.  You could probably add the killing off of the American bison insofar as this was done to deliberately deprive Plains tribes of their means of subsistence. (The overhunting was done for profit, but the government condoned it as a means of destroying the Indians.)  But referring to broad demographic trends as genocide is probably a misuse of the term, since no one was deliberately pursuing the extinction of an ethnic group for 400 solid years.  [[User:Fishal|Fishal]] 15:57, 3 December 2008 (EST)

::::::I agree, early European contact with North American aborigines had a hugely detrimental impact on the aborigines, but it wasn't until sometime later that actual government policy promoted the eradication of these people.  I don't consider accidental spread of disease genocide, even if the people spreading the disease didn't consider those getting infected as fully human.  But there was a definite period in the history of the U.S. where extermination was, though maybe controversially so, enforced by law and policy. -[[User:DrSandstone|DrSandstone]] 16:20, 3 December 2008 (EST)

::::::I agree, early European contact with North American aborigines had a hugely detrimental impact on the aborigines, but it wasn't until sometime later that actual government policy promoted the eradication of these people.  I don't consider accidental spread of disease genocide, even if the people spreading the disease didn't consider those getting infected as fully human.  But there was a definite period in the history of the U.S. where extermination was, though maybe controversially so, enforced by law and policy. -[[User:DrSandstone|DrSandstone]] 16:20, 3 December 2008 (EST)