Manifest Destiny and American Indians
by Cecil Poole
(This piece follows on from last weeks MDFF Jefferson, Pope Innocent IV, and American Indians, which briefly touched on The Doctrine of Discovery*)

Islam, Christianity and Judaism have the Book of Genesis as their genesis.  It is argued by some that these monotheistic religions arose from the changed cultural demands of agrarian societies as opposed to the demands of hunter gatherer societies.

Genesis contains within the story of the Garden of Eden.  This story starts with the Garden providing its inhabitants, Adam and Eve with all they need – “Nature provides”.  Due to that hussy Eve colluding with a snake and a rosey red apple to tempt the naive Adam the whole lot of them are thrown out.  Out of the garden where ‘nature provides’.

Thence it becomes the lot of the believers to try, with all their might, that impossible task of recreating that garden.  To do this believers, through their religion, are given ‘dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth’. (Genesis 1:28)  It did not take long for Christians to take this to mean dominion over infidels, non-believers.

It is from this simple bigoted premiss that the idea of Manifest Destiny arose.  (That it also demanded that believers remake the ‘Garden of Eden” to their specifications – take control of Nature if you will – is a matter for another post.)  It is through the Doctrine of Discovery that (principally) European powers explained their theft of lands from the indigenous  owners, and the actual physically and culturally genocidal policies as ‘Manifest Destiny’.  These powers then went on to say that they were doing it for the indigenous peoples own good.

Robert J Miller in “Native America Discovered and Conquered” has this to say: Manifest Destiny developed from the elements and the themes of the international law Doctrine of Discovery.  for 40 years or more, American politicians, citizens and newspapers used the elements of Discovery to justify Manifest Destiny and American continental expansion…..

The elements of Discovery became the rationale and justification for the idea of a divinely inspired American expansion across the North american continent.  Apparently Euro-Americans possessed the only valid religions, civilisations, governments, laws and cultures , and Providence intended these people and their institutions to dominate this continent.  the human, governmental and property rights of Native Americans were almost totally disregarded as Discovery and then Manifest Destiny directed the united States continental expansion.  The ‘wild and savage’ Indians and Mexicans were either to ‘disappear’ by assimilating into white American culture or they were to become extinct.  Under Manifest Destiny it was ‘clear’ that God wanted them to get out of the way of progress – American progress.  The economic and political interests of americans and of the United States were destined to dominate the continent and to aquire almost all of its assets.

The elements of Discovery and Manifest Destiny were pursued by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and a host of american politicians and citizens who wanted to benefit from the land and resources  that they thought was available for the taking, with God’s blessing….   The Discovery claims the United States made against Indian Nations and Indian people in the Louisiana Territory and the Pacific Northwest imited their human, property, commercial, sovereign, and self-determination rights…….

Two statements aptly sum up what Discovery and Manifest Destiny meant for Indians.  When Senator (Thomas Hart) Benton (1782 – 1858) was asked about American expansion and whether it would cause the extinction of Indian tribes if they ‘resisted civilisation’, he stated “I cannot murmer at what seems to be the effect of divine law… The moral and intellectual superiority of the White race will do the rest.”  as Manifest Destiny clashed against Indian interests in Wyoming in 1870, a newspaper wrote, “The rich and beautiful valleys of Wyoming are destined for the occupancy and sustenance of the Anglo-Saxon race……  The Indians must stand aside or be overwhelmed…… The destiny of the aborigines is written in characters not to be mistaken….. the doom of the extinction is upon the red men of America.” (p160, 161)

Passive Complicity promises more on this theme.

* The Doctrine of Discovery ha(s) been used for centuries to expropriate indigenous lands and facilitate their transfer to colonizing or dominating nations.  Under this Doctrine title to lands lay with the government whose subjects explored and occupied a territory whose inhabitants were not subjects of a European Christian monarch. The doctrine has been primarily used to support decisions invalidating or ignoring aboriginal possession of land in favor of colonial or post-colonial governments.

References
Brody H. The other side of Eden.  2000.  New York, North Point Press
Miller R.J.  Native America, Discovered and Conquered. 2006 Westport CT, Greenwood Publishing Group.