Opinion
Tim Giago: Indians became refugees in own land


"Can the early Indian reservations be compared to refugee camps?

After all, they held a lot of similarities to the refugee camps of say, the Palestinians. They were, in a sense, camps where Indian people, often from different tribes, were herded together after their lands were either confiscated or taken by force.

Cut off from their traditional means of survival they became very dependent upon the benevolence of the colonists. Some survived from the kindness of other Indian tribes that had not been forced, yet, upon lands specifically reserved for them. And so into the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, thousands of Indians became refugees in their own land."

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