Opinion Paper #2

The conflicts between the Native Americans and Dutch started in August of 1641. A Wickquasgeck Indian took revenge in his own hands against Europeans who had murdered members of his tribe fifteen years earlier. This Native American murdered Claes Swits, a well known trader in New Amsterdam, and triggered a bigger and bloodier series of events in the colony of New Amsterdam. Also, there were several different understanding between the Dutch and Natives from culture and religion etc.

Adriaen van der Donck was a only law man there at that time following this book. He was the most educated person at that time. He learned few Indian languages and he negotiated and inhabited with the Natives. I think he tried to find a better way to be harmony since he understood both sides. I definitely think he wouldn’t be happy what was happening between the Dutch and Native Americans in New Amsterdam.

This story reminds me of what happened in Korea when it was colonized by the Japanese in 1960. To colonize Korea, the Japanese first started killing thousands of Koreans very cruelly. They conducted experiments on the human body on living Koreans and forced many Korean women to serve as sex slaves to Japanese soldiers. They even prohibited Koreans from speaking their native language in an attempt to slowly destroy their identity.

As always, shameful acts are often written out of history in attempt to forget the past. For the Japanese, their history classes avoid talking about the colonization of Korea. This has led to a generation of Japanese descendants who now don’t know what happened 50 years ago.

Similarly, are Americans the same as the Japanese in the way they rewrote about the history of Native Americans? Just like Japanese don’t remember this history, aren’t Americans same? Who are the real Americans? What did these white people do to the native Americans in order to possess this beautiful land?