Hello. It appears that your post has an assumption relating to the American Indian Genocide(s) that occurred in the Americas. This topic is often controversial and can lead to inaccurate information. This message is not intended to provide you with all of the answers, but simply to address some of the basic facts, as well as genocide denialism in this regard, and provide a short list of introductory reading. Because this topic covers a large area of study, actions of the United States will be highlighted. There is always more that can be said, but we hope this is a good starting point for you.

##What is Genocide?

Since the conceptualization of the act of genocide, scholars have developed a variety of frameworks to evaluate instances that may be considered genocide. One of the more common frameworks is the definition and criteria implemented by the United Nations. The term "genocide," as coined by Raphael Lemkin in 1943, was defined by the U.N. in 1948. The use of this term was further elaborated by the genocide convention.

Article II describes two elements of the crime of genocide:

1. The mental element, meaning the "intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such", and
2. The physical element which includes five acts described in sections a, b, c, d and e. A crime must include both elements to be called "genocide."

Article II: In the present convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

• (a) Killing members of the group;
• (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

##American Indian Genocides – Did they happen?

Since the arrival of Europeans to the Americas, typically signaled with the appearance of Columbus in 1492, Indigenous Peoples have experienced systematic oppression and extermination at the hands of colonial powers. These colonizing governments either organized or sponsored acts of genocide perpetrated by settlers, targeting Indigenous settlements for complete destruction; eliminating sources of food and access to life-sustaining resources; instituting child separation policies; and forcefully relocating Indigenous populations to often times inhospitable tracts of land, now known as “reservations.” All of these acts constitute what scholars now recognize as genocide. The horrendous acts that occurred in the Americas was even an example proposed by Lemkin himself, where it is noted from his writings:

Lemkin applied the term to a wide range of cases including many involving European colonial projects in Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and the Americas. A recent investigation of an unfinished manuscript for a global history of genocide Lemkin was writing in the late 1940s and early 1950s reveals an expansive view of what Lemkin termed a “Spanish colonial genocide.” He never began work on a projected chapter on “The Indians of North America,” though his notes indicate that he was researching Indian removal, treaties, the California gold rush, and the Plains wars.

These actions took place over the entirety of the Americas, exacerbating the rapid depopulation of Indigenous Nations and communities. Exact figures of the population decline are inconclusive, giving us only estimates at best, with Pre-Columbian population numbers ranging anywhere from as low as 8 million to as high as ~100 million inhabitants across North, Central, and South America. What we do know is that in the United States, records indicate the American Indian population had dropped to approximately 250,000 by 1900. Despite any debate about population statistics, the historical records and narratives conclude that, at least according to the U.N. definition, genocide was committed.

##Mental Element: Establishing Intent

In order for genocide to be committed, there must be reasonable evidence to establish an intent to commit what constitutes genocide. Through both word and action, we can see that colonial powers, such as the United States, did intend at times to exterminate American Indian populations, often with public support. Government officials, journalists, scholars, and public figures echoed societal sentiments regarding their desire to destroy Indians, either in reference to specific groups or the whole race.

”This unfortunate race, whom we had been taking so much pains to save and to civilize, have by their unexpected desertion and ferocious barbarities justified extermination and now await our decision on their fate.”

--Thomas Jefferson, 1813

"That a war of extermination will continue to be waged between the races until the Indian race becomes extinct must be expected."

--California Governor Peter Burnett, 1851

". . .these Indians will in the end be exterminated. They must soon be crushed - they will be exterminated before the onward march of the white man."

--U.S. Senator John Weller, 1852, page 17, citation 92

##Physical Element: Acting with Purpose

U.S. Army Policy of Killing Buffalo (Criterion C)

In this post, it is explained how it was the intention and policy of the U.S. Army to kill the buffalo of America off in an attempt to subdue, and even exterminate, the Plains Indians.

Sterilization (Criterion D)

The Indian Health Service (IHS) is a federally run service for American Indians and Alaska Natives. It is responsible for providing proper health care for American Indians as established via the treaties and trust relationship between tribes and the U.S. Government. However, on November 6, 1976, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released the results of an investigation that concluded that between 1973 and 1976, IHS performed 3,406 sterilizations on Native American women. Per capita, this figure would be equivalent to sterilizing 452,000 non-Native American women. Many of these sterilizations were conducted without the consent of the women being sterilized or under coercion.

Boarding Schools (Criterion E)

The systematic removal of Indian children from their parents and placement into boarding schools was a policy implemented by the United States meant to force American Indian children to assimilate into American culture, thus “[killing] the Indian, [and saving] the man.” These schools were operated by various entities, including the federal government and church/missionary organizations. While constituting cultural genocide as well, American Indian children were beaten, neglected, and barred from practicing their cultures. Some children even died at these schools.

##But What About the Diseases?

In the United States, a subtle state of denial exists regarding portions of this country's history. One of the biggest issues concerning the colonization of the Americas is whether or not this genocide was committed by the incoming colonists. And while the finer points of this subject are still being discussed, few academics would deny that acts of genocide were committed. However, there are those who vehemently attempt to refute conclusions made by experts and assert that no genocide occurred. These “methods of denialism” are important to recognize to avoid being manipulated by those who would see the historical narratives change for the worse.

One of the primary methods of denial is the over severity of diseases introduced into the Americas after the arrival of the colonizers, effectively turning these diseases into ethopoeic scapegoats responsible for the deaths of Indigenous Peoples. While it is true that disease was a huge component of the depopulation of the Americas, often resulting in up to a 95% mortality rate for many communities and meaning some communities endured more deaths from disease, these effects were greatly exacerbated by actions of colonization.

##Further Reading

Though there is much information about this topic, this introductory list of books and resources provide ample evidence to attest the information presented here:

• Beyond Germs: Native Depopulation in North America edited by Catherine Cameron, Paul Kelton, and Alan Swedlund
• American Indian Holocaust and Survival: A Population History Since 1492 by Russell Thornton
• Murder State: California's Native American Genocide, 1846-1873 by Brendan Lindsay
• Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur by Ben Kiernan
• American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World by David Stannard
• Myths of Conquest by /u/anthropology_nerd
• AskHistorians FAQ

It is well-established that Hitler’s expansion plans to the east were in part inspired by American expansion, with the Nazis referring to the Volga River as their own Mississippi. Hitler’s American Model by James Q. Whitman is an excellent and accessible book regarding American impact on Nazi beliefs and laws, though its primary focus is on the impact of Jim Crow and other such laws rather than American expansionism. It does discuss the topic, however:

Indeed as early as 1928 Hitler was speechifying admiringly about the way Americans had ‘gunned down the millions of Redskins to a few hundred thousand, and now keep the modest remnant under observation in a cage’; and during the early 1940s Nazi leaders made repeated references to the American conquest of the West when speaking of their own murderous conquests to their east.*

Hitler’s admiration of Indian removal, while perhaps the most notorious, was far from limited to the Nazi era or to Germany - in fact, colonialist nations across the continent and even beyond seem to have drawn on Indian removal when creating their own colonial projects. From Unworthy Republic by Claudio Saunt:

Alexis de Tocqueville, who published his famous account of Democracy in America in the 1830s, witnessed the ‘solemn spectacle’ of a party of Choctaw families crossing the icy Mississippi River at the outset of the decade. Despite his ambivalence about the policy, he deemed the energy and determination of U.S. expansion a model for French Algeria. Within five years of the French occupation of Algeria in 1830, colonists were referring to the locals as ‘indigènes’, a term formerly reserved for people in the New World. America was ‘talked about incessantly,’ French administrators observed.

The U.S.-sponsored expulsion also occupied the minds of Russian officers in the Caucasus in the 1840s. ‘These Circassians are just like your American Indians’, the regional governor reportedly told one American visitor, shortly before Russia deported half a million people. Toward the end of the century, German imperialists in southwest Africa looked to the United States for an example of how to expel local residents in the name of progress, a goal that was widely shared by European administrators who coveted the continent’s vast resources.

Nor was this admiration limited to Europe. It appears to have in part inspired Japan’s colonization of Hokkaido and subjugation of its indigenous Ainu population. From the Routledge Handbook of Settler-Colonialism, Chapter 22 (by Katsuya Hirono):

In 1871, Kuroda visited the United States looking for a leader in initial exploration of Hokkaido. On President Ulysses Grant’s recommendation, Kuroda met with Horace Capron, who served in Grant’s administration as Commissioner of Agriculture, and successfully persuaded him to accept an appointment as a special adviser to the Japanese government. Kuroda hired Capron for $10,000 per year and additional funds for expenses to undertake the mission. It is quite likely that Capron’s earlier experience managing the forced removal of Native Americans, including Delawares, Shawnees, Creeks, Comanches, Kickapoos, Wichitaws [sic] and others, from Texas to new territories after the Mexican-American War appealed to Kuroda and his government.

While these examples are largely admiration of the policy, it is highly doubtful that it is without its critics - within the U.S., Indian removal policies had many fierce opponents, including most notably former president John Quincy Adams who noted it in 1841 as being “among the heinous sins of this nation, for which I believe God will one day bring them to judgment.” It is almost certain that contemporary disgust towards removal extended beyond American borders - Karl Marx, for instance was a particularly vociferous critic of European colonialism, though I am unaware of any specific references to Indian Removal or other related acts in his works. If anyone with more knowledge would like to contribute examples of international condemnation, that would likely help to more accurately frame the international view of Indian Removal.