After the mass killing at Wounded Knee, the American Museum of Natural History received children’s toys taken from the site. A 1990 law was meant to “expeditiously return” such items to Native Americans, but descendants are still waiting.
I think wining about land that was conquered (as well as who’s inhabitants populations would’ve been decimated by disease upon contact with Europeans either way) very similarly to other places throughout history doesn’t have much merit. I’m sympathetic to tribes who have had their sacred land promised to them and taken away (like the Black Hills). In terms of what American Indians are entitled to have back, I think cultural artifacts have a stronger argument than land, regardless of what they care about more.
And for peoples of whom the land is culturally significant for them?
I think any sane person would care more about having somewhere to live than their grandparents old trinkets.
I think wining about land that was conquered (as well as who’s inhabitants populations would’ve been decimated by disease upon contact with Europeans either way) very similarly to other places throughout history doesn’t have much merit. I’m sympathetic to tribes who have had their sacred land promised to them and taken away (like the Black Hills). In terms of what American Indians are entitled to have back, I think cultural artifacts have a stronger argument than land, regardless of what they care about more.