This tweet from Ben & Jerry's over the July 4 celebration makes no sense. It only makes sense if your motive is to attack and hurt traditional America with lies. Why?
It amazes me that anyone this successful in America thinks like this. The opportunity given to Ben & Jerry's to prosper and run a successful business and become multi millionaires a 1000 times over, then they use their platform, resources and American right of freedom of speech to attack the very thing that gives them refuge and a home.
Before European settles arrived in North America all Indian tribes were not living in peace. History is filled with war between tribes resulting in entire tribes being killed and wiped out. Land and resources must have exchanged hands a million times over the centuries in North America. War and genocide was nothing new in North America before European settlers arrived. European settlers became just another tribe fighting for safety and resources. What was new in North America was allowing conquered Indian tribes to live on reservations instead of European settlers continuing the tradition of genocide. You can thank Christianity for that one.
The land belonging to any country in the world was conquered and taken at some point. It doesn't matter what country you look at. If you go far enough back in history you will see conflict and war resulting in land being taken from somebody else. So what does the word 'stolen' in Ben & Jerry's tweet even mean?
People like to cast judgement on traditional American culture without any context. Like this blanket, stupid statement by Ben & Jerry's. Living conditions for European settlers was a war zone. Life wasn't easy and the threat of death was around every corner in the wild areas of Western United States. For example, the United States government came to an agreement with the Sioux Nation to give them land and money in exchange for peace. At some point a payment sent to the Sioux people went missing. What did the Sioux Nation do? They assumed the worst and set out to massacre European settlers. Entire families were butchered including woman and children. They even cut out the reproductive organs of European women and hung them on fence posts in retaliation for being slighted by the government. In the end hundreds of settlers were murdered in the most gruesome ways. All because a payment to the Sioux people was lost in transit.
Can you now understand how animosity can build between tribes, and why words like 'savages' were used to describe Indians? It was war! The land was taken and not stolen.
