[wwbirds]

Flint only touched on a few points on how the natives were treated. They were the keepers of the land for perhaps thousands of years and lived in harmony with nature only taking what they needed as nature provided.
The treaty rights for hunting and fishing were granted by representatives of the "whites" and for the most part they were promised "the sky" for the people making the promises were certain they would never have to live up to the letter of the law as "assimilation" and even "genocide" would by and large eliiminate the need to fulfill the promises. You could lose status and thus not qualify for treaty rights by converting to Christianity (the Jesuits looked afte that one as well as marryiing "white". Many lost status serving in the world Wars for you could not enlist and keep status. It is largely incorrect to state that natives also raped, burned and killed for they for the most part learned this from the original settlers of the land who the natives offered to share with (not be enslaved). whites invented scalping, and thought it was such a joke for native women to complain about rape (nes squaw = no sex) that they named native women "squaws". (sex)

then look at the early settlersdistributing chicken pox infected blankets to the newly established "reservations" and you have a very small idea of how this "genocide" was planned so promised rights from the Great Father (King) would never be claimed. thousands of years living on and from the land compared to a few hundred years of destroying it with ever expanding range requirements? Whose rights need reining in?????