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The Native Americans

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Genocide, I never expected there to be so much debate regarding the definition for this word, much less for acts that seem to fit precisely within its definition. In order to better understand if what happened to the Native Americans was genocide or not we need to get a clear definition of this word. According to the United Nations, genocide is, “Any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.” Upon looking at this definition, the parameters that it sets are quite broad. I definitely agree with this definition, and there is no doubt in my mind that what happened to the Native Americans falls under this definition. One of they key words within this definition that stands out to me is “intent”. Doing something with intent is doing something on purpose, with a clear vision in mind. When I look at the history of the Native Americans, I can see clear intent in the mass killings by the U.S. Before going further into history, I think we have to take a look back at where it all started. It is interesting to see how David Stannard points out

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