One of the many leftist tropes in use these days to demonize America is the claim that just about any piece of land was “stolen” from the native tribes. This is so important to our “progressives” that they feel the need to hide the truth that much land was purchased.
In this Liberty Unyielding article, Hans Bader notes that town officials in Concord, Mass., are intent on covering up a sign stating that land there was not stolen, but was bought from the natives.
Bader writes:
It’s very offensive to some progressives to point out the inconvenient fact that much of the land transferred by Native Americans to whites in the United States was sold by Native Americans, not taken by force. The Native American population was so depleted by disease in the 17th Century that Indian tribes could afford to sell some of their land to whites, because they weren’t using most of it. Selling land they didn’t need made sense — they could use the money they got for the land to buy firearms or metal-tipped arrows to defend themselves against hostile tribes, and to buy other useful things, like pots and pans, cotton and wool cloth, and metal tools needed to improve their agricultural output.
What? White settlers and the Native Americans entered into mutually advantageous trade? That can’t be — everyone knows that white settlement was nothing but a disaster for the native peoples, who would be far better off if Europeans had never arrived here to ruin their peaceful, environmentally friendly world.