That's not true: the tribe in my family tree was totally being genocided. In fact, they were down to 300 people at one point.
They were being killed in mass by their neighboring tribes and even their former tribe mates.
Then white people showed up. The tribe was incredibly peaceful (hence the violence they suffered, but just to stress this was a rare culture in the tribes) so they immediately made friends. Many Americans joined the tribe (because unlike most, they weren't racist). Suddenly, they had guns and allies. Their numbers exploded to over 3000, and they became one of the anchors of the entire plain Indian group.
Their territory ended up growing so large that they ended up donating land for reservations... To the very groups that had been killing them off a few generations before.
What I said was that there was no genocide of Indians (in general) by WHITES.
Many or most Indian tribes weren't friendly towards each other. Indians of one tribe killed Indians of other tribes all the time. If your ancestors' tribe was peaceful and was not attacking the other tribe back, and the other tribe was killing them to put an end to their tribe, then they definitely wanted to commit genocide.
That's not true: the tribe in my family tree was totally being genocided. In fact, they were down to 300 people at one point.
They were being killed in mass by their neighboring tribes and even their former tribe mates.
Then white people showed up. The tribe was incredibly peaceful (hence the violence they suffered, but just to stress this was a rare culture in the tribes) so they immediately made friends. Many Americans joined the tribe (because unlike most, they weren't racist). Suddenly, they had guns and allies. Their numbers exploded to over 3000, and they became one of the anchors of the entire plain Indian group.
Their territory ended up growing so large that they ended up donating land for reservations... To the very groups that had been killing them off a few generations before.
Wow, that’s a very interesting story. I’d like to learn more about it. Do you have any place I could go to check it out?
What I said was that there was no genocide of Indians (in general) by WHITES.
Many or most Indian tribes weren't friendly towards each other. Indians of one tribe killed Indians of other tribes all the time. If your ancestors' tribe was peaceful and was not attacking the other tribe back, and the other tribe was killing them to put an end to their tribe, then they definitely wanted to commit genocide.