Alas, History repeats itself

First they make an entire generation/society completely dependent and then they kick the chair out from underneath.....anybody else see a correlation between the demise of the Native American and this generation?



European imperial powers were the first to engage in trade relationships with the native peoples of the Trans-Appalachian West, seeking to establish "empires of commerce." Based upon the mercantilist ideal that trade ought to be "a one-way flow of wealth, from the margins of empire to its center," these empires of commerce incorporated Native Americans into the European economic sphere as dependents, disrupting their traditional culture and self-sufficiency. The fur trade, among other exchange commodities, subverted traditional Native American economic autonomy and fostered an artificial dependence on European trade goods.

.....fur and slave trade with the Europeans brought the Cherokees into the world-market, which in turn had a detrimental impact on their conventional society. Likewise, trade with the Europeans impacted Native Americans along the northern frontiers of New England wherein the "Indians were launched into a new economic orbit where trade supplanted self-sufficiency.

Hunting was one specific way in which Native American culture was altered by trade and European cultural hegemony established. Hunting, as a economic function, was redefined by European traders in a manner which was inconsistent with traditional Native American practices. Prior to European intrusion into their world, native peoples had framed hunting within a naturalistic religious domain which reflected their cultural values. From this understanding comes the traditional view that Native Americans envisioned a communal relationship with the animals of the forest and never hunted much beyond the needs of subsistence. European traders, however, destroyed this aspect of native culture by demanding huge quantities of furs and skins in exchange for manufactured goods. As a result, Native Americans were prompted "to reorient their economic practices, at times with disturbing implications." Native Americans, dependent on European trade, hunted pelt-bearing animals to near extinction, and, in exchange, they received progressively less for their goods, settling for beads, trinkets, and, eventually, alcohol. In the process, traditional "status and social authority" among native Americans were reordered by the shift to market-driven economies.