conscience did not awaken until 1946. Indians have been suing the whites for more than a century and swindling them for much longer than that. The first real estate fraud on the American continent was that famous purchase of Manhattan by Peter Minuit—but the tale has been twisted over the years. It was the Dutch who were swindled; the Scaticook Indians were the occupying owners, but the deal was pulled by a mob of Canarsie Indians who were visiting Manhattan for the day. The Scaticooks, by the way, have their claim in for the island, and they are not about to take any junk jewelry for it this time.
Jefferson paid Napoleon $15 million for the Louisiana Territory in another well-publicized bargain—a sum that did not include a further $300 million under the blanket to the Indians. Some Indians were paid as many as six times for the same land, each time returning to complain that the white man was an Indian giver.




Comments