Rough Sledding

In my research into the American West for Sabers and Sorcery, I've been sloughing through the numerous treaties with the American Indians.

19th century legalese is a wholly different language from English and modern legalese.

Florid prose comes close to describing it.

But what seems obvious to me, with the clarity of hindsight, is every treaty the US wrote with the Indians presupposes that the US is the rightful owner of whatever land was being discussed at the time and it was graciously granting the Indians use of it.

And the Indians, from a Western Civ point of view, agreed to this presupposition by signing the thing with those phrases intact.

Kids, it wasn't just the breaking of the treaties by Whites that fucked Indians, it was the treaties themselves in several cases.

And it wasn't a direct, dry, fuck either.  It was subtle.

It took advantage of the Indian cultures not doing things in the same manner was Western Civ and explaining it in layman's terms that didn't work the way the Indians would understand it.

The US probably would have gotten away with it if it weren't for all the blatant violations by white settlers and massacres by US troops.

But there are also plenty of very clear treaties that the US and the White settlers obeyed to the letter that the tribes ignored.  The US public, at the time, was inclined to ignore the violations because of poor harvests and lack of game and the Indians were just looking to find subsistence.

They would have ignored it too if it weren't for all of the massacres of white people.

Both sides had plenty of people who didn't care about the treaties and were going to do what they were going to do regardless.

A lot of them got killed for that.

A lot of other people got killed for them getting killed for that too.